health care. make the money and get the people in and out. it is horrible. i hate to say this and will probably ostracized , but i just do not know what to do about it. i thought about calling the labor relations firm of heavy. host: check into this book. maybe there is something in there that might help you out with your situation. caller: ok. i will do that. host: thank you for your ,. our time together has come to an end. i want to tell you about who is on the program tomorrow. david drucker of roll-call and rita wilson of the hot line will be here to talk about this week's political developments as well as looking ahead to the

congressional agenda in the midterm elections. we will also have into klein, the new hampshire leader and mike lafferty. they will talk about state and national politics. thank you very much for turning into this edition of "washington journal." we will see again tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. . . >> coverage from the democratic

national committee's winter meetings. remarks from house speaker nancy pelosi and live coverage of president obama addressing fellow democrats. national tea party convention in nashville, tennessee. >> and our coverage of the national tea party convention continues tonight with sarah palin's key note address live at 9:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span, c-span radio and online at c-span.org. >> now the democratic national committee's winter meeting with house speaker nancy pelosi. opening remarks from former virginia governor tim kaine. this is 35 minutes.

>> we have a wonderful opportunity this morning to hear from the speaker. it's going to be hard to get her away from admirers. a number of the d.n.c. officers and vice chairs are with us today. let me acknowledge them. mike honda, who is a member of congress from the 15th congressional district of california. [applause] >> i'm going to bring congressman honda back up in a second. congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz from florida's 20th congressional district. raymond buckley, vice chair and chair of the new hampshire party. and vice chair and president of

the association of state democratic chairman. donna brazil, vice chair for voter registration and participation. if you didn't see, she was waving a new orleans saints' baseball hat. andy tobias, who has been our treasurer since 1999. is andy here. d.n.c. secretary alex german. can deal with everything even 24 inches of snow. and jane stetson. i haven't seen her this morning. we are fortunate to have vice chair lottie shackelford. glad to have you. well, we are in a great place this morning to have the speaker come and visit. and i want to bring mike honda up in a second to introduce the speaker because they work so

closely together. before i do, let me say a couple of words about the speaker before i bring congressman honda up. i don't know that there's been a time when congress has been doing such heavy lifts on so many important issues as this past year under her leadership. again and again, when you see the president put out the big tough challenges, not the small ones, but in this challenging economy and there is good job news this morning. unemployment rate down to 9.7%. moving in the right direction. [cheers and applause] >> long way to go, but that's good direction. but as the president has tried to promote these changes that we need to make, the house has just been rock solid and i know you heard in that state of the union how many times the president referred to legislation the house has passed and encouraged the other body to do the same thing. i think it was five, if i was counting correctly.

the speaker has done enormous work and the caliber of the issues and challenging issues they were tackling, it has been super intense. i have been blessed by graciousousness by the speaker ever since i got elected as governor of the commonwealth of virginia. and i don't know what i did right, but i feel like she has watched out for me in a very special way and i appreciate that, madam speaker. but to give her the california introduction, let's give her a d.n.c. round of applause to the speaker for being with us today. [cheers and applause]

>> i want you to stand that once more. she says, the president of the united states, and everybody stands. let me bring up one of my vice chairs and helped so many virginia candidates and candidates all over this country and works very significantly on voter outreach and other issues within the d.n.c., congressman mike honda. give him a roupped of applause. [applause] >> good morning. thank you, governor. i think it's safe to say nobody, no other job in congress has a difficult job as the speaker, speaker pelosi. no one shows more responsibility in shaping debate and policy.

no one else listens to the needs and demands of a large diverse and often boisterous house democratic caucus and so strongly advocate for all of us with the administration and the senate. nobody does that better. nobody. no one spends more hours negotiating, no one stays up late deliberating and no one spends more miles campaigning than speaker pelosi. i know that because when i was campaigning, every time she called me on the cell phone, mike, i'm going down the stairs of the plane and i got you some money. [laughter] >> then it is no surprise that historians, pundits, friends, colleagues and opponents

consider nancy pelosi the most powerful speaker in history. [applause] >> it's because of her leadership and dedication to getting things done for the american people, the legislative accomplishments of the 111th congress are really extraordinary. think about it, president obama's economic recovery act to create millions of jobs and cut taxes for the middle class. historic children's health care legislation to provide coverage for 11 million children from working families, the landmark waxman-markey bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions and create millions of clean energy jobs in america. and on so many other challenges

from reforms on wall street and acting to create jobs on main street, speaker pelosi never stops fighting for california and for all americans. when the speaker said after the house passed our historic jobs bill just before winter recess she said she was willing and about to hit the campaign trail. and when she said that, i breathed a sigh of relieve because we -- relief because we needed someone with her stratdepiss to be out there in the field and campaigning because i don't know of any other better campaigner than nancy pelosi. nancy's vision ten asity, resilience and poise will lead us into the next november elections. i watch her every day and i don't think i have ever seen a look of anger in her eyes.

it's always determination and asking what is it -- what is your problem? [laughter] >> i know, because she once asked me that. [laughter] >> that was my first month. i learned quickly. so, my fellow democrats, it is my distinct pleasure to introduce a fellow california democrat, my speaker, your speaker, nancy -- the fighter -- pelosi! [cheers and applause]

>> thank you all very much. thank you all very much. good morning. and a good morning it is as was indicated by the jobs figures this morning. thank you, mike honda, for your very generous and insiteful introduction. let's give a big round to mike honda. thank you to our d.n.c. governor tim kaine, a fighter for our country. a great leader. aren't we proud of the leader? alice, we go back over 30 years. lottie, same thing. we have some history here. donna came along later, but her years are serious years. thank you to all here and i want

to acknowledge the california delegation. [cheers and applause] >> especially our dean, dean of our delegation. and one of the newest parch pants, my granddaughter isabela, here with her mother. i want to acknowledge that a member of our california d.n.c. delegation is going to be the speaker of the california assembly. aren't we proud of that. i want to acknowledge some of my colleagues from the congress are here from california and beyond. debee wasserman schultz, our vice chair. we are so proud of her. congresswoman barbara lee, the chair of the congressional black

caucus, unyielding candidate for social justice. maxine is here, also a fighter for economic justice and together and other members as well and c.b.c., working together with our democratic whip, mr. clyburn and congressman lee and congresswoman waters are helping the people of haiti. our president said you will not be information saken or forgotten. barbara lee is making sure that doesn't happen. and so it's wonderful to be here. i feel like i'm coming home. many of us have been friends for decades, some for days. all of us concerned about a better future for the american people. and so i'm very honored to having spent 20 years on the democratic national committee.

christine is on. my father. so i know full well the important work that the democratic -- members of the democratic national committee, our state chairs, vice chairs and others, i know how important you are to our electoral success for advancing causes to improve the lot of america's working families. i'm honored to come to you today as speaker of the house and on behalf of our great majority in the congress, including our majority leader, steny hoyer. any marylanders here? i'm here to say thank you, thank you for helping to elect strong democratic majorities in the congress that enabled us to make a difference in the lives of the american people. i know that senator reid's travel prevented him from being here this morning, but what an honor to work with him on behalf of a better future. he is a great leader in the

senate, senator harry reid. [applause] >> and as i proceed, i want to point out one area of special pride that is in the three years since democrats have won the majority in congress. we are very proud that we have provided greater support for our veterans than in any time in american history. [applause] >> as they say in the military, on the battlefield, we will leave no soldier behind. so, too, we say and when they come home, we will leave no veteran behind. [applause] >> let us recognize their service and the service and sacrifice of our courageous men and women in uniform and their families and their patriotism to our country. thank you to our men and women in uniform.

[applause] >> with your help to end discrimination, we passed the lilly ledbetter legislation and last week happily received the news that president obama will repeal don't ask, don't tell. [applause] >> and i know when you're out there i get questions. what is the difference between the democratic party and the republican party? during his acceptance speech at the democratic national convention in 1948, president truman, a man with very succinct words, he said this, the democratic party is the people's party and the republican party is the party of special interests. it has always been and always well. it was true then and it is true

today. democrats are the party of the people. and keeping in mind what president truman said about the republicans being the party of special interests, doesn't that, combined with the latest supreme court decision insist that we pass public financing of campaigns? isn't that long overdue? democrats are the defenders of the middle class and all aspire to it. democrats are fighting for fairness and justice. democrats are leading the fight for main street. never will wall street undermine main street. it will never jeopardize the homes, and life savings of the american people. and democrats are for health care for all americans as a right, not a privilege. [applause]

>> fairness and opportunity, that is the fire that burns within us. thank you for helping to elect a great president of the united states, president barack obama. [applause] >> in his inspirational inaugural address, president obama called for action, bold and swift, not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. with your help, it's all about you, with your help, one week and one day later, the house passed the american recovery act. it will mark its one-year anniversary on february 17 and helped to advance education of our children by hiring more teachers and keeping teachers in our classroom. the recovery act provided for the safety of our neighborhoods by putting more police and firefighters in our communities.

the transformation of our economy through middle-class tax cuts is an important principle of that recovery act. we began our investment also to create clean energy jobs and will continue, as mike honda said, to build on the wax-man -- waxman-markey bill. it's not just about putting people back to work but about having more and better jobs for the american people. [applause] >> there are few things i want you to remember to take home, according to major economic indicators, we have already seen signs of recovery that have sprung from this recovery act. here's what i want you to remember. number one, jobs. in january of last year before we enacted the recovery act, americans lost, in just the month of january, 741,000 jobs.

741,000 jobs in that month at the end of the month. one year later governor tim kaine mentioned that in january, 2010 is 22,000 jobs. 741,000, 22,000. 22,000 is too much. we know we have to do better. but it's a big difference. 720,000 jobs fewer than january of last year. [applause] >> number two, the gross domestic product, in december, 2008, america's g.d.p., decreased by 6.2%. just one year later, december, 2009, our g.d.p. grew by 5.7%, a remarkable 12-point swing and

the fastest that our economy has grown in years. 12 points from december to december. number three, the stock market. although yesterday, it wasn't a great day, it still closed over 10,000. just a year ago, around this time, the stock market closed at 7,000, an increase of 3,000 points in the stock market. and fourth, america's manufacturing base grew for the sixth straight month. let me repeat that. america's manufacturing base grew for the sixth straight month. and now it's at its highest level in five years. highest level in five years. [applause] >> jobs, g.d.p., stock market and manufacturing base increase our recovery act was an important part of making that

change. and we must recognize that in all of our communities across the country. but the biggest indicator for us and the president says it so well, the biggest indicator for us is the progress that is being made by america's families. we know far too many americans are still looking for work. democrats will continue to focus not only on putting americans back to work but creating more, new and better jobs for the 21st century. we will measure our success and the progress made by america's working families. central to our fight to create jobs and strengthen our economy is our fight to reform health insurance for the american people. [applause] >> this is about the economic security of america's families. let us recall the course that was set by the president and the congress last january. with your help, as was mentioned

earlier by mike, with your help, one of the first bills we sent to the president provides health care for 11 million children in america. we were off to a good start. [applause] >> and the recovery act invested billions, billions of dollars in health i.t., health information technology, electronic medical records and the rest so that when we go down the path of health care, we are off to a running start. and billions of dollars additional for base investments and base medical research, research with the power to cure. research paid for by the taxpayer, the benefits of which should be available to every person in america. our idea is predicated on the idea that the most privileged person in america has better health care if anyone in america has health care. [applause] >> and there's more. in a letter to president obama,

senator ted kennedy wrote about the need for health care reform. he said, what we face above all is a moral issue. at stake are not just the details of the policy, but the fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country. the senator kennedy is our inspiration. with the leadership of president obama and with your help, we will pass health insurance reform this year. [applause] >> here's what i want you to remember about health insurance reform, creating nour million good paying jobs. it is about innovation. it's about using the health i.t., et cetera and medical

research and innovation of how we deliver health care to everyone in america and to everyone to have personalized, customized care, to getting the right care. this is very important and it's about the future. this bill is about prevention and wellness, it's about diet, not diabetes. it's about how we can make america healthier, not just about health care, but a healthier america. and this bill is about fairness, that fairness, that fire that burns within us. in the spirit of fairness, under the legislation, you will not be denied coverage -- >> we'll take you live to the national democratic winter meeting for comments from president obama live here on

c-span. [cheers and applause] >> hello democrats. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. >> it is good to see you. good to be among friends. so committed to the future of this party and this country willing to brave a blizzard. snowmaggedon.

i have some special thanks to the folks here. first of all, i want to thank eleanor holmes norton for fighting the good fight here in the district of columbia. ray buckley, our d.n.c. vice chair. alice, german, andy tobias, thanks for the great work. i want to thank governor tim kaine, not only an outstanding former governor, but leader of this party and building the best grassroots organization we ever had. give tim kaine a big round of applause. [cheers and applause] >> if i'm not mistaken, we have a couple terrific members of

congress, mike honda. mike, are you here? he's on his way. he's still shoveling. and how about barbara lee? give barbara and mike a big round of applause. [applause] >> i want to thank the governors, legislateors, the mayors from across this country working to move their states and local communities forward in extraordinarily challenging times. they have done heroic work. i want to thank the d.n.c. members, state party leaders and most of all, i want to thank the millions of americans who have taken up the cause of change at the grassroots level in all 50 states. tim alluded to this, but i want to remind everybody, we knew from the beginning that this would not be easy. change never is. but that's especially true in these times. when we face an array of

challenges as tough as any we have seen in generations. president kennedy once said, when we got into office, the thing that surprised me most is things were just as bad as we have been saying they were. [laughter] >> truth is, things were worse. we took office facing a  financial crisis that was something we hadn't seen since the great depression, an economy that now know was bleeding 750,000 jobs a month, a $1.3 trillion deficit and two wars that were costly in every since of the word. from the specter of terrorism to the impacts of globalization we face tremendous new challenges in this young september try and

all of this comes on top of one of the toughest decades our middle class ever faced, a decade where jobs grew more slowly than any prior expansion, where the income of the average american household actually declined, where the costs of everything seemed to keep going up. everything we've done over the past year has been not only to right our economy, to break the back of this recession, but also to restore some of the security of the middle-class families have felt slipping away for over a decade. some of the steps we took were done without the help of the other party, which made a political decision all too often to jump in the back seat, let us do the driving and then critique whether we were taking the right turns. that's ok. that's part of what it means to

govern. and all of the steps we took were necessary. none of us wanted to throw a lifeline to the banks, but the outrage shouldn't be that we did because it had to happen in order to prevent millions more from losing their jobs, millions of businesses and homes foreclosed. the real outrage is that we had to do it in the first place in order to fend off the collapse of the financial system. that's the outrage. [applause] >> then we passed almost $300 billion in tax relief, tax cuts for small businesses, tax cuts for 95% of working americans. we put americans to work building the infrastructure of tomorrow, doing the work america needs done. we passed a credit card bill of rights to protect consumers from getting ripped off by credit

card companies. [applause] >> we put the law behind the principle of equal pay for equal work. [cheers and applause] >> we extended the promise of health care to four million more children of working families. we protected every child from being targeted by tobacco companies. [applause] >> we passed a service bill named for ted kennedy that gives young folks and old folks new ways to give back to their communities. we appointed justice sotomayor to the supreme court. [applause] >> and we begun working with congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay americans the right to serve their country that they love because of who they are. [cheers and applause]

>> overseas, overseas, we begun a new era of engagement. we're working with our partners to stop nuclear weapons. we banned torture. we have begun to lead iraq to its own people. we have chartered a new way in afghanistan and pakistan and taken the fight against al qaeda across the globe. went to cairo to be begin a new dialogue with the muslim world and standing side by side with the people of haiti. [applause] >> if you are looking at a tally of the things we said we would do, even in the midst of this extraordinarily challenging

economy, we kept our promises. we kept our commitments. we have moved forward on behalf of a more prosperous and more secure future for the american people. but for all our efforts, we had to acknowledge that change can't come fast enough for many americans. in recent weeks i visited allentown, pennsylvania, tampa, florida, nashua, new hampshire, talking with families and they want to know how are they going to find a job when they only know one trade, how are they going to sepped their kids to college, pay medical bills when they get sick, how are they going to retire? most of all, they are wondering if anyone can or anyone will do anything about it especially

here in washington. i understand the frustration. you understand it as well. i was talking to michelle the other way. she's always a good barometter. and the front page was oh, what's obama going to do to get his poll numbers up and the democrats are in a tizzy. and she said, listen, if you're the average family, if i'm a mom out there and i'm working and my husband's working, but we're worried about losing our jobs or hours have been cut back, cost of our health care premiums went up 30% and credit card companies just jacked up our interest rates 39% and our home values have gone down by $100,000, 401k's banged up and someone calls up and says, so, how do

you think president obama is doing right now? [laughter] >> what are they going to say? what are they going to say? of course people are frustrated. they have every right to be. and i know that during the course of this gathering, some of the press have been running around, well, what do you think you should be doing, this, that and the other? what's the strategy? when unemployment is 9.7%, when we are still digging ourselves out of an extraordinary recession, people are going to be frustrated and they are going to be looking to the power in power to try to fix it when you've got another party that says we don't want to do anything about it, of course people are going to be frustrated. folks are out there working hard

every day trying to meet their responsibilities, but all around them during this last lost decade, the big scene is the wave of irresponsibility from wall street to main street. and every day is treated like election day, every act, comment, gesture is passed through a political filter. they see the outside influence of lobbyists who too often hijack by leveraging campaign money and connections. of course they wonder if their leaders can muster the will and confront the real problems that touch their lives. and here's what everybody here has to remember, that's why i ran for president. that's why you work so hard to elect a democratic congress. we knew this stuff was tough. but we stepped up because we decided we were going to take the responsibility of changing it. and it may not be easy, but change is coming.

[cheers and applause] >> look, i believe so strongly, i believe so strongly if we're going to deal with the great challenges of our time. we're going to secure a better future. just as past generations did for us. we are going to change the prevailing politics of this town and it's not going to be easy. care less about scoring points and solving problems that are holding us back. at this defining moment, that's never been more important. we can continue, for example, to be consumed by the politics of energy, but we know that the nation that leads the clean

energy revolution will lead the 21st century global economy. we know a failure to act will put our planet in deeper peril. we know that china isn't waiting and india or germany isn't waiting and america can't afford to wait either. [applause] >> and i don't intepped to spend all my time taking polls to figure out whether or not we're going to see that future or not. we can continue to spin our wheels with the old education debates pitting teachers' unions against reformers. meanwhile our kids keep trailing our counterparts from singapore. we know that kids who are con signed to failing schools will be condemned to life times of lower wages and unfulfilled dreams. america can't afford to wait. i'm not going to take a poll to

figure out whether or not we're going to tackle education. we can continue to allow the same special interests to stack the deck in favor of special speculators and block reform again in this decade. if we have learned anything from the devastating recession, it's that we know that wise regulation can enhance the market and make it more stable and make our economy work better. we can't return to the dereliction of duty that helped deliver this recession. to do so would be to put at risk our jobs, families, businesses and our future. america can't afford to wait. and we can't look backwards. and yes, we could continue to ignore the growing burden of runaway costs of health care.

the easiest thing to do right now would be just to say, ah, this is too hard. you know, let's just regroup and lick our wounds, try to hang on. we've got a long and difficult debate on health care. and there are some, maybe even the majority in this town who say perhaps it's time to walk away. but here's the thing, democrats. if we walk away, we know what will happen. we know the premiums and out of pocket expenses will skyrocket as they did in the past decade. more small businesses will be priced out. more workers will take home less pay and fewer raises. we know that millions more americans will lose their coverage. we know that our deficits will continue to grow because health

care costs are the single biggest driver. so just in case there is any confusion out there, let me be clear, i'm not going to walk away from health insurance reform and not walk away from the american people, not walk away from this challenge, not any challenge. we're moving forward. [cheers and applause] >> we are moving forward. [cheers and applause] >> times we may be moving forward against the prevailing winds. sometimes it may be against a

blizzard, but we're going to live up to our responsibility to lead. and i'm confident that if we stay steady, if we stay focused on all the people that we meet each and every day who are out there struggling, if we've got them in mind and we are working to deliver on their behalf and in the end, that will be good politics. as well as good policy. it will be good for america, not just good for democrats. but in order to get any of these battles done, we're going to have to change the way washington works. now, we may not get a lot of attention for it, but we have already begun to do that. we reined with the toughest rules of any administration in the modern era. we are the first white house to

post our visitors online. we have excluded lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions. i have called on congress to make earmark requests public before they come up for a vote so you know how the money's spent. we have -- we are going to confront the gaping loophole that the supreme court recently opened that allows special interests to spend without limits to influence american elections. [applause] >> we also said as we worked to change the ways of washington, we would also change the way we do things as a party. this committee is the first to ban contributions from political action committees and lobbyists and i'm pleased to see the recommendations submitted by the change commission and improve our nominating process because the more americans get involved in this party, the stronger this

party will be. and we need to change the way we work with the other party as well. now, i'm proud to be a democrat. i'm proud to be a leader of this great party. but i also know we can't solve all of our problems alone. so we need to extend our hands to the other side. we have been working on it. [laughter] >> because if we're going to change the ways of washington, we're going to have to change its tone. now, as a step in that direction, i went and visited the house republican caucus last friday and we had a good -- [cheers and applause] >> -- we had a good discussion about the challenges. very good discussion about the challenges facing the american people and our ideas to solve them. it was good for the country to see a robust debate. i had fun. [laughter]

>> and we have to acknowledge, there are going to be some issues that democrats and republicans don't see eye to eye. that's how it should be and the way our democracy works. but there have to be some issues on which we can find common ground. one thing to disagree out of principle, but it's another to simply stand in the way because of politics. now's not the time for sitting on the side lines or blocking progress, pointing fingers or assigning blame, now is not the time to do what's right for your party or poll numbers, now is the time to do what's right for your country and do what's necessary to see us through these difficult times. now is the time to do everything in our power to keep the american dream alive for the next generation. and that's our mission, democrats. i know we have gone through a tough year. but we have gone through tougher years. we are the party of thomas

jefferson who declared all men are created equal and we had to work long and hard to ensure that those words meant something. we are the party of franklin roosevelt, when in the midst of depression said all we had to fear is fear itself save democracy and freedom from being extinguished here on earth. that was hard. because the natural impulse was to fear, but we as a party helped to lead the country out of that fear. we are the party of john f. kennedy, who summoned us to serve, called us to pay any price and bear any burden. and we are the party of edward m. kennedy who said that here in the united states of america, the promise of health care should not be a privilege but a fundamental right. that is who wer democrats. that's who we got to be today. for all the stories we have

heard, after all the campaigns we have waged and all the promises we have made, this is our best chance to deliver change that the american people need. if we do that, if we speak for hope of the american people instead of their fears and inspire them instead of divide them and give them the same sense of urgency they feel in their own lives, we aren't just going to win elections, elections will take care of themselves. we will be the party that turns around the economy and moves the country forward and secures the dream for everyone in the next generation. thank you everybody. god bless you. [cheers and applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

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♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> he only had a block or two to get to this winter meeting. live coverage from washington this morning, whereas about four hours ago, the city received 20 inches of snow. six to 10 is expected more today. this is a live look at the u.s. capitol.

the scene in nashville, a bit different, although they may see some snow as well. national tea party convention will resume this morning. a discussion on the role of the tea party, what role they might play in the upcoming elections and panelists will examine ways to go and analyze. we'll take your calls and comments. tea party convention coming up in 20 minutes or so. live coverage here on c-span and for a bit of a flavor of the convention, here's a look. >> my name is bill from minnesota and i have been down here since tuesday. and this convention is very encouraging. >> tuesday, that is two days before you could even register. >> that's right. i wanted to make sure i was here. i flew from fargo, north dakota to atlanta, georgia and i picked

up a used car, which i had bought for this convention and i drove that from georgia to nashville. >> why did you go through all those different hoops to get here? why did you fly to atlanta and get a car. >> the car is a demonstration of commitment where i bought an unusual car and had it repainted just for this event because i think this event is so critical to the united states of america. >> what do you mean by unusual car? >> 1995 stretch limo, and it has black and i had it painted brilliant purple to draw attention to the event. >> how has this convention been going so far? >> it is more than sold out. 500 people were on the waiting list and only 600 tickets. and i tried to get some extra tickets for complete coverage

because i have two dinner tickets and everything is sold out and i think it's a great success for the convention-goers as well as america. >> what do you hope comes out of this weekend's activity. >> refocus on both of the big parties, the republicans and the democrats. and i would hope that they think about their policies going forward and this tea party apparently is catching on like wildfire all over the country. and we as a nation, regardless of what party we used to belong to, we need to hope and pray this country can be restored. >> all right, sir. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> more coming up live, the first national tea party convention in nashville. two panels to cover and sarah palin's speech. our coverage resuming in 20

minutes here on c-span. a look at the tea party nation from this morning's "washington journal." host: joining us from tennessee, the founder and chairman of the memphis tea party. good morning. host: tell us about the tea party movement from your perspective and what's happening there at the convention, what are the goals of what's going on in nashville. guest: tea party movement is an interesting phenomenon where we have this popular political agitation for change. people were germly not being heard by their legislateors. what began to occur back in last february with the rant on cnbc, people began to gather, associate, generate rallies culminating in the town halls that took place in august and the martha took place in

washington, d.c. in terms of the activities recently in new jersey and virginia, and of course, the result of scott brown in massachusetts, i think the movement has begun to mature, it moved from holding signs to exerting political power at the voting booth. here at the national tea party convention, we are helping to move to the next level, provide training tools and giving them ideas how they can collaborate and work closely together and network as they go back to their respective tea party associations and lead other people. host: front page of the "washington post" this morning, they have this headline, the tea party is still taking shape. they write, it's a critical moment for the movement that is unmiss takenly people-powered that has been left leaderless to all frustrations and although the mood here has been festive and giddy, the fluidity of the

group has been on full display. is the atmosphere festive and giddy? guest: i have been dealing with the media. we had 11 different countries represented, 200 media credentials and people have been enjoying that. on one side they are glad they are having their own convention and an opportunity to get together with people of like views. but in addition to what's happening, they are getting their voices heard mostly in a positive way. we have been hitting the papers, interviews that you have just done and others. i think in that sense, people are not being characterized in some of the silliness we saw earlier in the year. it is poignant to suggest that people at this convention are not dressing up, not holding signs and unlike some of the approach that was taken earlier as to how they were portrayed, this is a business convention and at the same time we had

great movies and looking forward to sarah palin's key note speech. host: we are showing a video of a guy in a green tam and video of gentlemen who have been wearing the three-cornered hats, sort of reminiscent of the revolutionaries who started off the boston tea party. when you say they aren't dressing up, what are you talking about? guest: he was in the documentary movie. we launched that and had a premier showing here on thursday night. he has been quite enjoying himself because of the movie. he stays in character and quite a fine gentleman. there are a few that wear those hats. but through the breakfasts, luncheons and like, people are about business, learning, how do

they develop skills as leaders. we don't need to affiliate to a national organization. politics is all local. you don't elect someone in the state of tennessee senator unless you live in the state of tennessee. in massachusetts, we saw scott brown elected with almost 6,000 people coming across state lines getting the vote out and helping him change the face of the administration's agenda. . .

the movement is a way for grass- roots people to energize around politics. largely, these people have done their job, gone home, took care of their families, gone to church, played taxes, and expected the government to represent them well. but i believe people have said, enough is enough. we can no longer stand silent. indeed, i would suggest that

what we're seeing today is a group of people concerned about their country and frankly very concerned about what is going on with respect to debt, with respect to pay off using tax dollars, and at the end of the day, the government in our lives. >> so if i were at the convention in nashville, would i see a fair amount of liberal democrat tea party participant? guest: the fact of the matter is that we saw in full under that there are cute note conservative democrats. -- youtube no conservative democrats. there are those classified as

republicans, but there is the message of liberty, and fiscal responsibility, and people most likely will associate with the republican party. but this is not a republican movement. michael steele would have been proud to oversee this, but that is not a case. as i have shared numerous times, senators and congressmen do not wake up one morning in washington d.c. they start as commissioners, school board members, and small- town mayors. the distance between their home town and washington so far has changed remarkably, and that is what people are angry about. at this point, what you would

see is people saying, we put it there, we expect you to represent us. host: the convention is meeting at the gaylord opry land hotel right there in a national -- nashville, tenn. caller: just recently, mr. brown got in. what is he going to do try and block everything? that is not a doubt.

they like the long ranges out there. they cannot get it accomplished if they do not know. guest: it is new, it is maturing. from the tape parties that took place in april until until scott brown got elected, that changed the whole dialogue on health care. one thing we talked about yesterday was the ensuring liberty form, and to build that coalition of people who would represent the first principle of fiscal possibility, lower taxes, states' rights, national security. and the idea is that over election cycles, the tea party

will be able to change, particularly with congress members caucusing around those core values. but if we have eight strategy to energize the base, those which participate will, with ways, they will vote for people who reflect their bellies. -- their values. but ultimately, we will hold them accountable what they are elected. ultimately, we will run at the election. not to be authoritarian, but eventually, look, it you have said what you will do, you have made a collection, we expect you to legislate as such.

>> our next call comes from jacksonville. caller: you do not really join the tea party. my husband and i have gone out to two tea parties because we were extremely upset over the fact they allow, and other things. i also question whether the previous caller wasn't republican, because the upset has happened. the point i would like to make is that in the tea party, lot of people are ross perot people who see economic consequences that he warned us about in 1992. nafta, illegal immigration. economic issues, not racism. as you look today, the people most hurt by it our black citizens, and hispanics.

so i have not heard a lot from him. how does he viewed the economic issue? i feel like people try to take these economic issues, and because they cannot repeat them with facts, the brent them with words like racism. every country has a right to protect the citizens in their country. i think that 140,000 workers brought into this country every month in a time of depression, that is too many. i appreciate what he is doing. he gives people hope. thank you so much. guest: that is a lot to talk about. i spent much of my life overseas. i worked in 50 countries, lived

in six countries. i watched the berlin wall come down. i opened up operations in india and china. we have to be concerned. the responsibility is to use tax dollars to pay. but let me give people perspective. labor is fungible. money is fungible. it goes with the most skilled workers are. you can put it out, apply for a

job, get a master's degree. it is not about nafta. it is about the fact that people must pull themselves up, get educated, and be diligent about the skills that are necessary. if we can reduce the size of government and about of legislation and regulation that occurs, we can read up on what happens. 60% of new jobs are created in companies zero years to five years old. with a 1.6 trillion dollar prospective deficit, 1.4 trillion dollars the preceding year, three trillion dollars will be taken out of the economy. and the lack of jobs being translated, over time, that will change.

we need to get government off our backs, reduce regulations, allow people to innovate and create those jobs that are certainly lacking today. >> our next call comes from marin and richmond, va. -- maria in richmond, va. caller: if i never speak again, let me say this. the only people trying to save this country are the boys overseas fighting for this country. the people that come along like a thief in the night and moved away after they make their profits, that burn their money, they are liars.

guest: there is a lot of frustration in his voice. i hear that. i appreciate his frustration. people need hope to allow them to get the education that is necessary. we have to involve ourselves one person at a time to provide those opportunities. the caller suggested moving out of this country. but the new jobs have to be formed and people have to find employment, and it is so lacking right now in the current recovery.

host: they wrote, "they will probably post at how they will galvanize a normal americans against runaway spending, but a dark underbelly of xenophobia has been exposed at the first national gathering." that was in response to former congressman tom tancredo's speech in which he called obama a socialist and declared that some cultures are better, ours is better. your response to that? guest: i was being interviewed that evening by the "times of london." i think there will be different

voices in this movement. sometimes, from my perspective, i have lived overseas and worked in many countries, but i have less concern. many people come to provide the productive knowledge they have and the skill sets that is lacking, it has been a lover of an advantage for the nation. -- a lever of advantage. my family came from yugoslavia and poland, and i'm the first in my family to get a college degree. i won a billion dollar publicly traded company. in germany, they could you kindergarten -- give you kindergarten, the garden of the children. you are growing up into expectation to do one thing or several things well. here in our country, you can organize, you can become a

senator and a president with in one generation. this label of xenophobia and racism, while some people attempt to place that level label on many members of the movement, it is not true. and tom tancredo has shared many perspectives, but i do not believe from my perspective the issue of multiculturalism, the experience of people coming to the stage, is problematic. we are americans first, all of us. i'm not a polish american or a yugoslavian american. i am an american first. london today has a problem with immigration of islamic, where people look at themselves as islamic first. in this country, we look at

ourselves as american first. i think that is a unique model. host: our next call from shelton conn.. caller: i am a retired teacher, and i did travel a bit overseas starting about 40 years ago. our culture and educational system was very lacking. but i think this party should develop a tactic where they limit the terms of anyone who goes to congress. i think that would be a positive benefit for the party. i will hang up and wait for your response. host: your thoughts? guest: there was a movement a

while back. term limits were interesting. my own view is i think the role of the politician who makes a career out of politics has never been envisioned by our founders. i would love to see a senator said look, i will represent you for two terms. that is 12 years. it is significant enough for people can get things done, know the ropes of washington, legislate, then go back to their day jobs. these career politicians tend to institutionalized their power. and we saw that with the $300 -- $300 million to borland's payout for health care, the center position, ben nelson, who took the pay off. other instances, as well. i believe frankly that the best

way to limit is insuring that ultimately you organize to vote them out when they are not perform the job you would in vision. and in reducing taxes, any greater liberty, we can change it. i appreciate your point, and my own view personally is i would rather not see career politicians. caller: i drink a suggestion or two first to preface my statement. people would understand basic economic theory, they would be able to put a stop to government intrusion and the cause of the boom-bust cycle we find ourselves in. a book by thomas woods, meltdown, explains economic theory, and they follow up with

the crash proof 2.0. as we were able to get off of paper currency and retype it to the gold standard, i think we would be able to stop government intrusion. right now we have the treasury printing a bond, the federal reserve buying it with money they print. this allows for politicians to influence sectors of society in a disproportionate political way, and this causes the imbalance in the economy. could you address that? >> i am not a professional, but i am aware of the monetizing of debt. this is problematic. and ultimately, markets will correct. they will devalue the dollar, or

we will see inflation, as you describe. in the 1970's, when i was young enough to remember jimmy carter, and we saw 21% interest rates, the malaise of america, the truth is we cannot sustain that kind of debt. i cannot say with any great degree of confidence if the gold standard is appropriate. but would you begin to inflate the economy, you can look for other countries where the action resulted in chaos. so i agree with you that right now, the dirty little secrets, the cost of food stuffs, etc., there is this other currencies with inflationary pressure building that has to come as a result of so much debt been moved across our government. so the solution will be self correction, because the

government cannot control but sufficiently under current policies. caller: i do not consider myself a literate, and i deeply resent the dividing approach. guest: the comments you are referring to, i did not directly hear them.

i fully support this idea of an informed voter and the idea to understand what is happening. a lot of people say nasty things, suggesting that we are not is -- nazis. i do not use pejorative or degrade people. in my area, i try to encourage people to have a dialogue. i was speaking with the n.y. times yesterday and said, book,

you and i can disagree vociferously, but i will not attack you personally. when i see a person like sarah palin being put up with a tinfoil hat, it does nothing to advance the dialogue. it angers people, creating emotions that are unnecessary. stick to your point about the idea of dealing with racism and xenophobia, this has got to stop. and i will not as a leader in so people's character, unless they in salt mine, and the sense that i would call them out, suggest that, look, this dialogue is not inappropriate -- not appropriate. i encourage people to have an informed and respectful dialogue. there is nothing wrong with being courteous. host: sarah palin will be the keynote speaker tonight, and it will be covered by c-span at the

gaylord opry land hotel in nashville, tenn. tonight. regarding sarah palin and the tinfoil hat, part these same people upset when they see pictures of president obama character turd as the joker from the latest bad man -- caricatured as the joker from the latest batman movie? guest: we have eight delegates attending the collection, and over 1100 total. you know, i would suggest this. i think that the movement is maturing. while i do not appreciate those views, the fact of the matter is that people possibilities and

sarcasm is just that. we are well known for those kinds of things. and we have got to get over it. the let's use the right one way and vice versa. we have to create a dialogue. political discourse takes all forms. sarcasm, some of the signs we saw -- i spoke yesterday about tenements where, the great picture about the man in front of the tank. boris yeltsin beginning to open up that country. you look at the berlin wall, i was there when people began to take it down. venezuela had a mass protest last year with the addition of chavez being enshrined in the presidency. and in every case, people were put in prison.

we have an angry voice and go but doing your business. this is uniquely american. we have 11 countries represented. they see this american exceptional as some. in many countries, it is not possible. that their sensibilities left, and the fact of the matter is, we are not firing bullets at each other. host: should governor palin throw her hat in the ring and decide she wants to run for president, with the tea party is supportive?

guest: i will tell you my opinion. i think sarah palin is an extraordinary woman. her family has been attacked. she has been attacked. they joked about rape and. the lack of sympathy for her child has been borne by the family. i think it remains to be seen whether she is prepared to be president, but she certainly has been vetted. from our perspective, the common-sense concern of the values are things that people work said to be there appreciate and can identify with.

the innovation and participation is important to the political dialogue for america. i hope she will continue to support the movement. i think that she will. how are you doing? in the beginning of your segment, you make a statement that said you asked jesse were you bank, and he said that is where the money was. it was not jesse james. it was willie sutton, during the great depression. my grandfather worked on his car. he took the money and shared it for the community.

jesse james got a bullet in his head from his own boy. i want to correct you, because you said you knew the facts. willie sutton. guest: thank you. appreciate the history lesson. host: welcome to the program, howard. caller: i appreciate you paris -- you guys. as for the collar and tea party, i think this is a grassroots movement. a lot of names and labels.

it is something that people are afraid of, and that is what search goes through, also -- what sarah palin goes through, also. for the person they're talking about, we should straighten out what sarah palin is getting paid for her visit, where that money is going, because there has been a lot of speculation about that. host: before you answer, howard, why is it important to you to know how much she is being paid? caller: it is fair for her to be able to raise what she can raise.

keynote speakers typically make good paychecks most of the time when they go to places. to me, the focus has been so strong on this from so many people saying she is just doing it for money, you know, and you hear a lot of that. guest: i have not asked, and i do not care. the contact was done long before i got involved. i am amused by all of the discussion around cost of tickets, prices, etc. we are contributing $600,000 into the local economy. we have not ask for a payless repair or tax break.

we have a wonderful speaker who should be compensated. at the end of the day, but me be clear with your viewers. we of socialist america that capitalism is bad. we pay people who run up with a football hundreds of thousands of dollars and show up to buy beers that cost $6. and would serve palin is getting an honorarium, it is still relevant. i am proud we are helping people retain their jobs at gaylord. i think tea party people are proud. people like c-span who we are so grateful.

we're part tested this a better event. in 45 countries and different news organizations, the news we are communicating is about exceptional listen. capitalism works, people can choose. and the excitement is absolutely palpable. host: charles hurt, d.c. bureau chief of the "new york post," rig -- writes that tea is for toss 'em out. the political world they want to influence is a world of compromise. it is no place for security, and that is how the american founding fathers designed it. at best, they have one actual

success to point to, brown's astonishing come from nowhere victory to take the massachusetts senate seat once held by kennedy. your response? guest: behind the curve. yesterday, we announced the ensuring liberty nonprofit. but let's look to the effect. from the initiation to be april 15 tax day when people marched to washington, i was directly involved. i made phone calls on behalf of the new york 23 district, where the republican candidate withdrew endorsed the democrat. people need to understand there can be a more responsible way to influence elections.

>> part of a conversation with mark skoda. we are going to take it back to nashville. let's go to this panel discussion with some organizers on the future of the movement, and the issues discussed among activists and where they see it heading. we will take your phone calls after this session. >> this is a huge year of change for the movement. we are going to have everybody tarp briefly about what is going on -- talk briefly about what was going on. please think about your question before getting to the microphone and be brief when you get there. that will allow more people to participate in this. we do have our friends on the sound board. our panel, from atlanta, georgia, amy kramer.

you know you can get your friends. from memphis, tenn., mark skoda. and you know you are special in the movement would you are identified by a single name. dave. [applause] so what i want to do to start with is we will go down the line a little bit and get folks -- we will start with amy, go to mark, go to dave. i wanted to talk about what you think the movement is doing now and where we need to go in the next three months. >> as i said earlier, we have lots of energy, and we need to harness that energy, get more people engaged, and focus on

these primaries. after primary season, we will look into the election. get behind your candidates. it takes the money to run. they need money to. if you can donate to them, and believe and what they're doing, i encourage you to do that. we all need to unify, stay focused on the mission, and move forward. >> fundamentally, the energy here needs to be taken back. and we need to a range the level of discourse. i think the tea party movement and we need to go back and an

m.a. followers with leadership skills. leadership is nothing more than getting out front and sacrificing some time and yourself. this is about elections, not about education alone. fundamentally, people here understand that. i am excited about it, and i've spoken to various people throughout this weekend. we are not lunatics. we are people with skills, knowledge, capability, and a desire for their country. in that sense, the movement is maturing. you need to continue to represent that. a dialogue that goes above the din of pejorative name calling and represents herself as the americans you are -- represent yourself as the americans you are. >> i represent part of the triangle region in north

carolina. thank you. i agree we need to take energy back to us. we are already moving forward in happens plant. for every 20, a town hall on voter fraud in the rally convention center. february 20. that evening, another evening. another event. two events, one day. march 20, we're putting on a candidate debate. we have found out that the politicians want our endorsements. anybody here that before? so we went to our representatives running in the fourth district against david price, one of the worst of the worst. there is a conspiracy.

this man is so bad, he voted not to defund acorn. north carolina in general is very corrupt. you may have heard of gerrymandering. in raleigh, we have three different house districts. on march 20, we will have a debate in raleigh with three different rep. contest ready to go. they want our support, they want

our votes. on april 15, we hope to show washington and carolina that we are still around, and we're coming for them this time. >> next question for of three analysts. should the tea party in gore's specific candidates -- endorse specific candidates? >> as i have said before, you win elections by endorsing somebody, vetting them locally. otherwise, you will be represented by somebody you do not support. if you want to agitate and show

scorecards, have at it. that does not get people elected. you still have to vote. to vote, you have to know about your elected official. and that contact, i am looking to support candidates, as we are doing in many races here today. >> i will agree on one level. we can educate people by having the debates, as i said earlier, but with you saying who you will vote for, you have lost your boat. if you cannot take initiative to do your own research to vote, you should not be voting. >> i have to agree with what mark said. we need to enforce candidates in our local communities.

we all know that politics is local, and we need to start in our local and state levels. there will be groups that endorsed politicians around the country, national groups. as long as they stick to those values of fiscal responsibility and limited government, i imagine we will be endorsing the same people. and our job is not only to get behind candidates but also to educate so people vote on principle and value and not according to the letters next to someone's name, and that has to happen before you go into the voting booth. >> those of you who wanted to ask questions and, you get a chance now. what i'm going to do is ask one more question. think about it and open up your

hands. here's a question i have been asking a lot. the perception is last our report as far as last tax day, the movement was unified. it has since then fractured, and i do not know about north carolina. i know what happened in memphis, some things i have been through, and none of us are thrilled with the vitriol. but as far as the movement is unified, one unified movement, what is the best way? what do you think? >> i have been under attack. but there -- it does not matter. you can kick me off the board and take the title from me, but that is not what gives me the power to do what i do.

it is a relationship i have built, and none of us can take that away. at the end of the day, as long as i have seen it on the frontlines with the rest of you, i feel like i'm doing my job, and if we stay focused, we will remain vigilant and be successful, and that is what is supported. it does not matter what group you are with as long as you stand with other patriots in this movement. [applause] >> one thing they say about the press is about the divisiveness in the movement. it is divided. we are divided by states, counties, cities. we act locally, but we collaborate nationally. that is what this is about. the notion of divisiveness is overstated. it is apparent to me there is a shared the value, a shared

place. and ultimately, that is powerful. and there will be different views on how a lot of this movement matures. hopefully, that is what we celebrate if we're truly about america. in that sense, i do not act in a way that would divide or suggest our actions are wrongheaded. let our leaders determine the best course of action locally. that is where we receive our power. >> i think everybody needs to agree that we will disagree on some things.

we never agree from one group to the next. i am part of a group called the freedom struggle steering committee. it does not matter about labels, what the media says, or what we do to restore the constitution. >> a lot of people would probably like to ask questions, so now is the time. at the microphone, tell us your name, what you're from, and ask the question. >> i would like to suggest that we pressure are candidates to certify under oath, penalty of perjury, when they are voting for a bill, that they have read in it.

otherwise, they should have to abstain. >> any comment on that from the tea party? >> most of us would agree on that. how would you vote for something you have not read? >> unfortunately, we have limited resources, so we have to take our values very wisely. i would like to see that, but if i had my personal favorite, i would see the powers act enacted. keep these things short. it would keep these bills shorter. >> einkorn to be divisive now -- i am going to be divested now. at the end of the day, you

achieved by speaking, not more legislation. we have laws and regulations destroying the fabric of this country by virtue of trying to institutionalize good behavior. it will happen if you elect people who promise you they elect the bill and will read it. i firmly believe that is part of the character to deck -- today. i understand your frustration, but legislation is not necessary if we are motivated to elect people in. you elect a person from the point of view of understanding principles. everyone elected has generally come out of local office. you can access them. it is shameful that local elections are so under boded,

sometimes 1% to 3%. shelby county has had less than 1% voter turnout. how do you know about the person you're asking to take a state or federal job? this is what it should be out on the education side, but the responsibility of the boot is yours. everyone in a seat should be understood by the people who make the decisions. >> we did a town hall. a man said i voted for a friend of mine, and he went to washington and had great ideas and good moral character. months later, we called up and asked him how things were going, and he said i am a rock star. i can get anything of what -- i want.

what is the average time in washington to corrupt a good man? two weeks. we have to clean up washington and the greed and corruption still up there. >> i completely agree. >> my name is fred from north carolina. i am a general contractor. when i said i sign a contract, i can get a bond for 1% or 2% to do what i said i would do. why not ask politicians to buy a bond or issue and be personally liable for that bond and pay voters back? >> you are too late. north carolina is taking it a step further. you will sign a bond.

they were at the same town hall. you put up a bond with $2,000, and you run and if you do not do things, you lose your money. >> interesting idea. who is next? >> my name is suzanne, from shenandoah valley, california. to that, may i suggest to everyone, when someone comes to you and is ugly or unpleasant, why do you not look at them and say, what is our goal? very simple. what is our goal? everyone of us has a singular goal. we want a government, constitutional governance. that is overriding all of the

divisiveness. they might get their nose is bent out of shape, but the point still comes back, when you look at them and say you are angry about something, i think the time you look at what your goals are as opposed to what our goals are. thank you. [applause] >> i have had a recent experience with divisiveness. one thing we need to do is a movement is harkened back to somebody who is our for beer in the movement, ronald reagan. ronald reagan's 11th commandment? thou shall not speak evil of a fellow conservative. in the tea party movement, we need to do the same thing. i am of little different. i love the fact we have some

many groups,, because it is the free market of ideas. the market gives us the best results. the market is how we got to be here today. and there is a tea party group out here in the room that is going to come up with the next great idea. what we have to do is a movement, we sit there, if you support the movement, a jump in. it does not matter who leads. you will get things done if you don't care who gets the credit. that is where we need to be. and there are people doing things out there we disagree with. we do not have to talk about it. i was in front of a judge and somebody was running very mouth, and somebody said, you have the right to remain silent, but not the ability. i think it was calvin coolidge said, that which you never say can never be held against you.

if you disagree, go on, do your thing, and let everybody try and work and achieve our goals. >> i am don curtis from perry, as florida. and reporters have asked me questions about all kinds of conservative issues and with the tea party is. my question to you is, do you think the movement will mature into being a big tent for conservative ideas? will it be broad and become more mainstream, with all kinds of conservative ideas? >> you know, as i said earlier, the tea party was not even going a year ago. where we will be a year from now, nobody knows. right now, we need to focus on

the values of limited government and free market. we do not touch social issues, because when we do, that is when you lose people and by people. there are republicans, democrats, independents, and libertarians across the spectrum. those are the issues that unite us now, and we need to stay focused on that. wherever this road takes us, it has got to be seen. but if we stay focused and unite and work together towards bringing back accountable people to washington, i think we will be a lot more successful. [applause] >> i would like to address this and the last question together. my answer has always been this is either a success or failure. it is black or white. whether it is success or failure

depends on you. the people who paid the money, and what we take home and report back. and the same thing for the future of the movement depends on you. how you are going to inspire and keep it on a grass-roots level with people's lal, get rid of egos and political agendas and take control of the country. [applause] >> kind of a practical question for you. since we freeze our debate from a grass-roots movement, how does a person like me who is not a kennedy or a bush but wants to be politically involved from a campaign standpoint it elected and represent people? how do i do that and balance the fact and the to pay my bills and take care of my family? how does that happen?

>> that is the question of government, isn't it? there are probably 60% of local offices, from board presidents to shelby county commissioners, etc., not even being run by republican conservatives. they are not contending, because it isn't like yourself have not stepped up. if we are grass roots, look at the school offices. we do not always have to be congressman or senator. it begins in communities. and one thing i am active about is recruiting, helping people achieve those efforts on a local basis, because ultimately, i can assess their effectiveness and character and values. you do not have to be full-time. most of them are part-time jobs.

get your feet wet engage yourself in a way that allows you to experience the government, not only politics. governments is a process by which we legislate and represent our people. politics is a process by which we make our resources heard, and i would encourage you to do that. in the memphis t party, we recruited a woman running in a largely democratic district 9 against steve cohen, a very liberal, committed democrat, and she is running as a conservative in the district. you need to support those people, because ultimately, you may not know how to run a campaign or run for office, what your requirements are, etc. but we need tea party leadership at the grassroots level to begin to develop a skill set and assistance and counsel and just the moral support necessary for you to be successful, but first you have to stand for something,

then you have to run on it. . . >> county commission, school board, something like that, your campaign manager is going to be a volunteer. but you need somebody who has at least a little bit of experience

who can keep you out of trouble. it will take time. when i ran for county commission i was running my own law practice, i was doing other things, had family obligations but i took the time out to run. and the final word of advice i will give you is do not get bitten by a spider. [laughter] >> vern, who do we have next? does anyone else want to comment on that? >> i don't know that much about running for office. i have no political aspirations. i will never run for office. but one thing i'm hearing lately from many people is how important the money is. you know, there are tea party people running all across this country. and i keep getting these e-mails that tea party activists are great at writing letters and showing up at events and that sort of thing but they're not contributing. so i think the message is there that what j you can d was saying surround yourself with a good team and fundraising. you definitely have to fund raise. you can't run a campaign without the money. >> it is really -- i mean, for

me one of the reasons i formed tea party nation as a for profit corporation having been through a campaign, asking people to write checks is not a great feeling. i will tell you point blank. maybe if you don't have a conscience or something it doesn't bother you. if bothered me. it's a tough thing. you got to be able to do it. belly-up to the buzz saw. but also here's the great equalizer to look at. mark is the great guy to talk about this. who here is thinking about running for office? raise your hand if you are thinking about it. all right. >> who's running for office? can we have those who actually are running for an office right now stand in this room, please? who's running for office right now? let's give them a hand, people, please. [applause] >> they're standing up. they're going to take air rose. you got to surround them. it's an e van gel cal meeting if you will. put your hand upon them, prop

them up and support them. i'm declaring my 2012 presidency today. thank you very much. >> you're welcome. one of the things i have had the privilege of standing in front of groups and telling them tea party is not complaining about bad leadership. complaining is not enough. we must replace bad leadership with good leadership. if you are out there -- if you are involved in this movement, you need to think about running for an office. be it school board, it be county mayor. and these are the crucial, crucial races. and one of the things that's so crucial and i think everybody in this town is going to agree with me, school board. that's how you influence the next generation. >> amen. >> get out and do it. one of the things we're going to try to do on tea party nation we'll be working with mark. mark knows computer technology inside and out. point blank i don't. but computer technology, the internet is the great equalizer. talking about the need to run money? what we've been talking about is how to set up a campaign where instead of running a campaign on

hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars, you run it on thousands of dollars or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. mark, is adam -- >> adam is out here. could you come up here in a moment? i want to introduce you to somebody who ran in the primary in illinois. is adam here? adam? i hope he's around. he may not be here yet. but adam anjesky is an example of a man who ran as a common guy who decided to run in the gubernatorial election for the state of illinois. eight, now almost 12 days ago he was down 20 points. he brought in some local tea paid membership, people who could help him. ultimately he lost about 50,000 votes but he came up to be a contender. adam represents the best of what this movement is about. a guy who decided to try to serve and attempt to be elected. interestingly enough i spoke with his campaign after the election. the next day after they announced the loss -- by the

way, the two top contenders in that election are split by 500 votes. 500 votes. adam 47,000 e-mails the very next day that gave him encouragement and said he was the only guy that they believed that could change the corruption in the state of illinois. that's support, ladies and gentlemen. that is a wonderful result. [applause] >> i hope adam will come in and we'll hear from him in a little bit. these are average people. you see, one of the things i am frustrated by sometimes is we look at washington as some alien entity. for many it is. it's the bubble. but they are you and me. they are people of america who somehow lose their way perhaps, or perhaps have never been properly assessed. but do not discount the fact that they are still americans. and without our support and without our guidance and without our help and without holding them accountable they do go off the road. and i am certainly as a citizen, as an american, thoughtful about the fact that pressures they are

under. our system of government, our free enterprise system and the lobbying and everything else that goes on is extraordinary even for the best of humankind. and we have to have some empathy for that without degrading that they decided to serve. as we'll hear from sarah palin tonight, you think about what she has gone through, her family,er the name calling, the absolute out and out hate. sarah palin doesn't deserve that. none of us deserve. that as americans -- and i would encourage the tea party in particular to raise the dialogue. discount the name calling and be supportive of your elected officials and help them and hold them accountable. because that's how we change america for the better. >> amen. >> i agree with mark, but i also have to say that some of these that are drunk on power have to want to helped. otherwise it's a lost cause. and if they don't want to be helped it's time for them to go back home and for us to put somebody in there that will do

their job. [applause] >> i think for a politician who's drunk on power is called retirement. >> right. >> let's wish many of them a speedy retirement. >> one more comment on that. we're telling what we can do. wade county, north carolina actually did it. they got a concerted effort last february and started to retake the school board. we have nine people on there, four seats were up for election. the republicans did an excellent campaign. it was an off-year election. we took back the school board. they're going to get rid of diversity, which means busing, year-round schools. and you know what they said to the liberal a stuck pig, "we didn't know we should have come out and vote." take advantage of it. s we went over yesterday, we can go out and mobilize conservative, good candidates. and as they're home watching

oprah we can take back the country. [applause] >> vern, who have we got next? >> good morning. my name is larry morris. my wife and i drove here from southern california. [cheers and applause] >> if i may give you a little bit of advice and then maybe you can talk about it. i'd like to give you advice, if i may give a little bit of advice here. in 1980 i ran for congress with the libertarian party in southern california. and that movement at that time was really taking off really big. and it just didn't get to where it should have. but to get back to staying unified with all the groups, my advice would be stick with what i believe three main issues. and that's the spending number

one, the debt number two, and taxes for number three. and i believe in the l.c.d. math, lowest common denominator. focus. stay focused on those issues. don't get split and divide and get conquered type of thing. so stay united with that. one final thing is the youth. young people. and the schools and the college. and get involved with that really big time. because they're our future. thank you. [applause] >> thank you for your comments and your advice. i agree with you absolutely. when it comes to the youth i have to tell you that's one of our biggest challenges. i have always been a conservative. and last spring i went to the

republican state convention in i-- in savannah. my daughter was with me. when we went into that convention center the first thing that i noticed was the age of the people there. they were all great people, wonderful people, but there was no one there other than one young guy my daughter's age. and we talked about it. and it's obviously a challenge that we face. and i'm snot knot sure what the answer to it is. the answer lies out there amongst all of us somewhere. and i'd love to hear from anybody that has the answer on how we can possibly bring the youth into this movement. because it's definitely what we need to do. and it's something we definitely need to be focused on. >> there's an easy answer. we need to make our schools schools again instead of indoctrination centers. [cheers and applause]

>> take back the schools, take back the churches, take back the government you'll solve your problems. there's the three. >> i happen to be a believer in the theory of what i call the grand alliance. we've got a lot of core issues that we all agree on, the spending, the taxation, stopping the socialist programs, stopping healthcare, stopping tax and trade et cetera. once you get beyond those issues there's a lot of people that have different issues. some of the social issues, other things. but what we need to do is work on the issues that we all agree on. we can achieve those. the other things, some we're going to be on board with, some we're not going to be on board with. but the big issue of what we're together on and united on and that's where we need to push the ball forward. vern, who's next? >> my name is micky booth. i'm from hawaii and i'm a community organizer. [cheers and applause] >> i moved to oklahoma in '95. we wanted to retire and have a

little bit of land and some horses, which you cannot do if you stay in hawaii, the most blue state, one of the most blue states in the nation. so being there since '95, i'm now running for district 2 house of representatives against -- challenging dan boren, incumbent democrat, voted 98% of the time with his party. i went to a town hall and told him he needs to go back to washington and start over with healthcare. one issue, one bill. and he didn't vote for the healthcare bill because he was allowed not. to they had enough votes so he was allowed not. to i wanted to sharing is with you from hawaii. this is my husband's birth certificate. [laughter]

>> this is my son's birth certificate, born in kopeolani hospital, 30 years apart. this piece of junk is what you get if you don't have one of these. take a look? >> thank you. thank you. >> i need everybody's help. i'm the founder of the route 66 tea party in oklahoma and i've been with all ofout whole way. just recently decided to challenge dan boren and i've got the support of all the tea party members in oklahoma. i really need your help. i've got t-shirts for $15. if i can get $440 to take home with me i can buy 2500 push carts. thank you for your help. thank you all very much. >> thank you.

[applause] >> all right. we are starting to run up against a time crunch here. so what i want to do is we'll take two more real short questions. we'll have final words from our panel. and then we'll have to get ready for the next event. vern, who's next? >> warren, my name is jeff. i think i'm the only native montanaen here. [applause] >> i've got a quick question. we keep talking about wanting to focus on a few core issues. i keep hearing that we refer to ourselves as conservatives. while that's not a bad thing in any way, shape or form, it's a word that has connotations that reach beyond the core issues that we're trying to focus on. i'm just wondering if maybe referring to ourselves as patriots, for example, as opposed to conservatives would be a better way for us to improve our relationship with people who are not inside this room. >> i'll take that one step further. i've said this yesterday at our

meeting. you can take 10 people say they're conservatives and get 10 different answers what they think they are, what that means, what that represents. you say "i'm a patriot" everybody knows what that means. and here's what my wife always yells at me. she's probably cringing. what's the difference between a patriot and a conservative? a patriot will do anything he can do to take back his country. he knows what has to be done and he will do it. life, fortune, sacred honor means something yet to some people. [applause] >> you know, we talked about this definitional role. and language defines and has different connotations. but if we were trying to create the national tea party of america, i would be concerned about these things. but you can't even come on to

johnson road and vote for anybody in shelby county unless you live there. so the issue about whether we are clearly defined and how we view ourselves in a definitional role perhaps is not as important as it is at the local level. we keep talking about. that i have to tell you, i'm less concerned about where a national movement goes as i am about making sure that of the 654,000 people that are registered in shelby county that they actually vote. because then we're going to see. and i will live by the votes as long as it is informed and educated. and i think, you know, we tend to try to see these movements as something unique and something perhaps differentiated over the many movements that have occurred throughout this nation's history. but unique what's happening right now in relation to the tea party movement, conservatives who have stood fast in their homes and jobs and families and perhaps expected people to do the right thing are now stepping up to hold them accountable to

do the right thing. and only you through your vote and through your actions can determine that. and if you are defined by the simplicity of a word or a definitional phrase and you are finding that discordant with your overall efforts then perhaps you're looking to the wrong thing. because your vote is the only thing that matters. you can raise your voice widely. many of us have been interviewed. many interviewed by the press here. some misquoted. some perhaps positioned as being a bit strange in their context. but ultimately what i would tell you is dismiss that because no one is shooting you. no one is trying to take your life in america. and in that sense we can be proud that the discourse that we have and the difference of opinions and the context in which we share with one another about who we are does not need someone else's definition. i'm encouraged in america. i'm encouraged as first an american, a conservative, a republican, a father, certainly a son. but if we get into all these words and we try to develop a

"philosophy" around this tea party movement then we lose obviously focus. enaur should not be spent on trying to establish some unique platform or some unique element of a new constitution. [applause] >> when i did a survey on the memphis tea party, it is amazing to me that 97% of the people who responded had never been to an event of this nature. more importantly, half of them had not voted recently. you cannot be someone who wish to change -- someone who suggests you wish to change america you must vote. please do not interrupt me in the context of our discussion because you did not legitimize your citizenry by not voting. [applause] >> i just want to echo what mark said. you can call me conservative, you can call me patriot. but first and foremost i'm an

american. and i want to protect my rights to call myself what i want. [applause] >> there were four pages that were written a long time ago that don't need to be rewritten. that's what it means to be an american. and that's what i'm defined by. >> right. [applause] >> all right, vern, who have we got for the last question? >> my name is jack billman. i'm from greencastle, indiana. and i'd like to thank all of you, everybody, for this convention. it has been fabulous. >> thank you. thank you for coming. [applause] >> my question is money. everybody talks money. and you know, one way you turn people off is ask them for money. but i know it has to be done. my question is, other than just outright asking for the money, what would you recommend as far as events are concerned to raise

money? thank you. >> you know, it's interesting. that's a question everybody says we've got to get the money out of politics. look. this is a free country. you're here. you're spending your money. so let's not be ambivalent about that. it takes money to run and to win. i've been in sales most of my life. asking for the check is a pretty normal standard. i get nine nos and i get one yes and i make my salary. you know, you have to get comfortable with asking for money. and those who will donate will provide it. and then if they don't have money you ask them for time. if they provide it youment. you have a benefit in your movement. if they won't provide time go on to the next possible person. we do t-shirts, we simply ask people to subscribe. in the memphis party we allow people to contribute monthly. the radio show that i do in memphis, i go out and i sell radio time to fund my show so that i can speak three times a week about these issues that are important to me.

and it's sort of the old, you know, paul the apostle, the tentmaker? you go out, you earn your living, you make the decision and you bring the cash. in do not be ashamed of asking for the dollars that are necessary to support you. and they will make an informed decision about whether they wish to write the check. because they do not think ill of you if you ask them plightly. [applause] >> to take that one step further and see freedom.u, main page, click on the donate button. that's a joke. come on. you can laugh. [laughter] >> i know we're wrapping up here. i just want to also -- how many folks are here from tennessee? can you stand? >> you know, this is a great state. and i hope that we thank everybody from tennessee who showed the hospitality. nashville is a wonderful place to hold. this and i'm so grateful. to you tennesseans by the way i'd like to invite you to a 1:00

meet and greet up in hermitagec. we're having lieutenant tom ramsey come here for a meet and greet. he wants to meet you. he is running for go. -- for governor. this i is how we get to note character of the person who's running. please join us if you have time 1:00 upstairs. i would encourage you to get to know these people. i had the fortune early on of meeting george w. the first time i saw him was at a fundraiser in nashville, tennessee over at the wild horse saloon down on -- what street is that? >> it's on second avenue. >> thank you. and he did a fundraiser. and i loved it. in fact i was so interested to hear him. and it was personal. and he shook hands. and you know when you touch someone? when you touch someone that actually shares an immediate bond -- i don't mean touching in a negative sense, ok? there's been enough of that going on lately. but in the sense that, you know, you look a person in the eye and

you ask them a question. and do not ever, ever believe that you are below anybody in elected office. you are equal in every sense of our constitution and the law. [cheers and applause] >> one other thing on the issue of money, technology is the great equalizer here. just like the printing press revolutionized things, technology and the internet have revolutionized things. if you're thinking about running for office and talking about trying to raise money, as important as trying to raise money get some good technical people on your side. because you can now send out row bow calls, messages, and other things for a fraction of the cost of sending out traditional push cards or other types of advertising. so if you're thinking about running and you're thinking about the issue of money, think about your alternatives. it's sort of like the revolutionary war where the british would walk out in the old tactics and stand up and shoot and the patriots would be hiding behind the trees and picking them all off one at a

time. that's how we have to operate when we act against these people politically. running out of time. to wrap up what i would like to ask our people, i want a few thoughts for the next few months. where you think the tea party is going -- and i say the tea party, i mean the tea party movement, where it's going, where you think it should be going, and where do you think we're going to be six months or a year from now? we'll start on the far end with david. >> well, we'll be continuing this from the 1:00 to 4:00 session up in herm itage b. where we'll be i've outlined what we're doing in north carolina. we continue to do more and more. where we'll be will be dependent on what happens with other things that are happening around us and besides us that we have no control over. i do not know what's going to happen with the monettary crisis. that will define what going to do. should that stop us from planning? no. we need to move forward and plan for the best. it's up to us. it's up to us to go back and

lead the groups we represent. >> i think if you allow yourself to be cast about on the waves of indecision, we will be nowhere. it's however you build the boat and row hard in one direction we will be winning 2010. i'm convinced of that every single day as i meet people like yourselves who for the first time understand their role and their responsibility. the tea party movement is not a party per se. it is a rallying cry for the citizenry that we should have been experiencing for all of our lives. we're just now doing something about it. i'm absolutely optimistic. the folks here, the 600 of you will multiply as i intend to to tense of thousands and perhaps millions. and the influence that we have as leadership that we all have as a responsibility of american citizens will make the tea party movement a mature, perhaps shared that will allow us to

successfully change government. and i believe i can predict successfully that will be the case in 2010 and beyond. [applause] >> first of all, i just want to congratulate all of you guys for doing a great job over the past year and say happy anniversary. because we're about two or three weeks shy of the first anniversary of the tea party movement. so happy athens, you guys. great -- so happy anniversary, you guys. great job. [cheers and applause] >> you know, we've come a long way. we've had rallies. we've had town halls. we've called, faxed, e-mails. now is the time to take action. and over the next several months and in november we absolutely have to take action. and i hope and pray and i believe that in november we will be able to replicate what we just did a few weeks ago with scott brown. [cheers and applause]

>> and we have scott brown's son. in closing i have a couple of questions. number one how many before this tea party movement got started never got involved in politics? show of hands. is this not amazing? if i had to hazard a guess, i would say 90% of the people in this room have held up their hand. and that is amazing. this is going to freak you all out. i'm going to say. this thank you, barack obama. [laughter] >> this is the silver lining. >> yes. you know, i have a friend who's a democrat. and she post something on my face book page probably a couple weeks ago. said, can you ever say anything nice about barack obama? now, hang on. hang on. you know, i disagree with him 100%. but i'm going to say something nice about him. he didn't intend, this but the outcome of his election has been a massive awareness, a political awareness, and people getting involved in politics. and politics is not a dirty word. it is your civic duty. it is in the constitution that

we get out and do. this and this is so important. now, i'm in a very clear minority here because i will tell you i've been a political junky since i was a teenager. so that's a little different experience than most people. have a very wise friend of mine who's in politics told me one time about the rule of 51. if you're going to run a race, you have to have 51% to win that race. if you're go be an elective body you have to have 51% to get your legislation passed. i don't have to ask how many of you folks vote on a regular basis. i already know that. every hand would go up in here. how many of you are now thinking about running for political office? show of hands. folks, we got a lot of hands. it's not nearly enough. i'd guess there's about 5, maybe 60 hands raised. personally, i'd like to see that

up to 100, 150. you cannot complain about bad leadership. that is not enough. you must replace bad leadership with good leadership. folks, you are the good leadership that will replace the bad leadership. where's the tea party movement going to be six months or a year from now? we're going to be in the process of replacing bad leadership with good leadership. that is your mission should you choose to accept it. and folks, you better accept it. let's go out and let's change america! thank you! >> judson, one last question. i know tonight we've got sarah palin. but i would like everyone to stand and please applaud judson phillips and his wife sherry for this extraordinary conference. we are blessed. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you. >> we have another session coming up in a few minutes.

i think we need to do a little bit of setup for that. by the way, i'm being remiss as a host. we have some amazing panelists. david came all the way from north carolina, mark drove up from memphis, amy -- i called her who what, two, three days ago when we found out ana was sick. what a trooper. she's a pinch hitter. she drove straight up from atlanta to be here today. those are the folks who need some thanks. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> let's take about a 10 minibreak to get set up for the next group. and take your own break and we'll see you all in 10 minutes. thank you so very much. if. >> as you heard, tea party organizer judson phillips say they're taking a 10 minibreak. next session is going to look at organizing practices. nuts and bolts about the tea party and increasing political influence. we'd like to know your thoughts on what's next for the tea party movement. some discussion toward the end

of that first session was about. that here are the numbers to use. 202-585-388 for republicans. for democrats 202-585-3886, and for independents 202-585-3887. if your a member of the tea party, support the tea party nation your number is 202-585-3888. we will get to you momentarily. our thoughts here are what's next for the tea party movement with judson phillips saying that toward the end of the discussion what's next quoting him replacing bad leadership with good leadership. the "washington post" writes this morning one of the emerging sets of principles that could align tea party groups is taking shape on the tea party patriots web site where registered members can contribute to something that might resemble a platform. more about the tea party movement on our web site, including some of our coverage from yesterday, c-span.org. ogden, massachusetts, a republican caller. go ahead.

ogden, hello. you're on the air. all right. let's try egan, minnesota. go ahead. democratic line? >> yes. i just wondering why these people are just suddenly upset about the national debt when we had eight years of george bush putting everything on a credit card, not funding -- not paying for two wars, one of which at least surely never needed to be gone into in the first place. why they're suddenly this outrage of -- over the deficit when, you know, it took eight years of george bush to create this mess. and obama is doing a great job of trying to turn it around. >> a republican view here from ogden, utah. >> yes. yes. i've been watching the program. and i think the tea party is the most wonderful thing that's

happened in the united states of america. and i hope they get behind the candidates in the next election and get rid of what we have in washington, d.c. that are not working for the american people. >> the third tea party express will cover some 40 cities beginning march 27. a couple of stops in utah including st. george and provo and salt lake city. it starts the 27th in searchlight, nevada, hare reid's hometown, and will wrap up in washington, d.c. on tax day, april 15th. riverdale, georgia, democratic caller, hi. >> yes. good morning. i mean good afternoon. >> go ahead. >> oh, yes. good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> yes. i'm calling in regards to the tea party movement. and i have a similar feeling to a previous democratic caller that just said i'm wondering why all of a sudden these people -- all white just about -- have suddenly decided that we have a problem in this country when

this problem has been compounded for the past 20, 30 years with so-called white leaders. so you get a person of color finally in office and suddenly we realize, oh, we have a problem in this country. i cannot understand what the big hullabaloo is because we realize suddenly that there's a problem with the debt, deficit, and everything else that's going on in this country. and there's no way in the world you can tell me that this is not anti-whatever person of color. and i'd like to see something discussed about this on your c-span instead of this nonstop propoganda that we're getting currently. thank you,. >> birmingham, alabama, this is a republican caller. >> ex-republican caller actually. i'm an independent looking for a party. would like to say that corruption on our government is probably squelch any third-party just because of the process. and the supreme court has proven that where they're allowing corp

ration racials to give as much money to our corrupt leaders as they want to would pretty much squash a third-party. they have this tea party thing figured out. mark skoda mentioned raising money and running for office. but yet the two parties in power, no matter if you're black, white, or purple polka dotted are locked in and they basically locked the rest of us out. i can tell you that i've had problems with the united states forestry service. and it pales by comparison to what goes on in national politics. so the corruption is our problem. and anybody that can figure that out i don't think we'll be able to do it with the voting process alone. >> dearfield, florida. good afternoon. >> hello. >> hi there. >> hi. i'm call from deerfield. i'd like to understand your tea party program. and i'm looking at it on tv. and i haven't yet seen a black person as my color on there. i would like to know what

happened to mr. steele who is the chairman of the conservative party. and i would like to see more of our color coming on there if you have them and they are conservatives. >> deerfield, first of all, michael steele heads the republican party. so this is coverage of the tea party nation convention. but another caller mentioned this. why do you think there aren't any other people of color in the audience? >> well, the only thing i could see is that they -- i don't know how you set up your platform for getting members to come to your parties because they don't have the money, number one. >> well, keep in mind, caller, this is not ours -- not a c-span event. we're covering this event so the tea party movement nation organizes this and puts this on. >> what i'm saying i see this on c-span. what i'm seeing is i don't see them there. because like i say, they don't have money. number two, you may have to charge tickets or something, i

don't know how you get your people to join your organization. and i think that like i said it should be more of them. and you may get more understanding of what they're doing. >> well, we thank you for checking in with us. more of your calls coming up momentarily here. we are waiting for the start of the next session where they'll kind of get down to the nuts and bolts of organizing for elections and increasing the political influence. we wanted, though, to give you a flavor of some of the other events going on this weekend at the oprylandlord opryland hotel in nashville and the first tea party convention. >> what is that you're holding there? >> i am holding a picture tur of our next president of the united states. i hope. >> is that the primaries and you came to this convention? >> what are the signatures on the back? >> these are all the people who love sarah. they all stand behind her.

they're from everywhere. all different states. >> i'd like to ask where did you collect all of these? >> some of these are from different tea parties. >> what are you hoping to get out of this otherwise other than seeing sarah palin? >> actually i'd like to learn a little bit more about networking, meeting other conservatives, trying to get our country back on the right path. >> and back live at the gaylord, opryland hotel waiting for the next session of the tea party convention, looking at organizing practices and ways to influence elections, we're asking you what's next for the tea party. so far, writes the "washington post," the only formal political machinery to emerge from the convention is a planned political action committee announced friday by mark skoda, the leader of the memphis tea party. augusta, georgia, republican caller. georgia, you're on the air. go ahead. >> hi. good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> first of all i want to say

thank you for broadcasting this. i love the transparency. we got more transparency on this convention than we did the entire healthcare debate, which c-span, thank you for you guys, even went to the president's spokesman and said, why aren't they viewing this? why isn't he fulfilling a promise that he made to the american people to show us what the healthcare debate was going to be. they did not want us to see the sausage. what people are doing today is seeing how a political movement takes off. the tea party -- and this is my opinion -- i do not believe is to set up a third-party. but it is to clean out corruption. i enjoyed what the speaker said at the end. he asked how many people were involved in politics before. and less than 9% raised their hands. that's significant. i've been involved in politics as far as following it and blogging and posting for probably 15 to 20 years because i have young kids. and i don't want to see my kids'

future gone array. a caller a minute ago asked where are the african-americans? they're out there. but media doesn't show them. one by the name of her man cane. her man cane two nights ago had a freedom work conference online that anybody could have watched. but they don't go out there. they don't look for it. walter e. williams. there's several in the movement that are very powerful, very key in that area. the other point i'd like to make -- and you said what is the future of it? the future of it i believe is just like what sarah is doing. it's not so much running for office but it's supporting candidates who are number one, small government, number two, fiscally responsible. if you understand the acronym for tea, it means taxed enough already. small businesses are hurting right now. the lady said people don't have money. she's right. they don't have money. and the government wants to take more money. they want to tax more and more of our money. the tea party is rising up because we're tired of being

taxed. >> thanks for the call. you mentioned sarah palin who is speaking tonight tonight to this group, 9:00 eastern. we'll cover, that take your calls after that. politico writes if sarah palin does launch a white house bid she has a natural constituency with this anti-establishment grassroots network age erd over the growth of government, budget busting spending and president obama's policies. that's from politico. a democratic call pgh >> good morning. as being an african-american, the tea party movement frightens me. it looks like a lynch mob to me, really. and like the gentleman one on the panel said, stop busing. that means stop busing black and white children together in schools. he wants to get back to segregation. also they said that sarah palin is one of them. i think she's one of us. because you all have said that

only african-american young ladies have babies out of wedlock. thank you very much. >> to vancouver, washington, for our next call. tea party member in vancouver. hi there, what's your name. >> my name is katie. >> go ahead, katie. >> i would just like to say this is absolutely awesome. for many, many years the program has been designed to make the economy fall. there's no such thing as democratic. there's no such thing as republican. they all work together. the people which are the men and women of america are waking up and realizing this is not the way to live. it's not working. you can live by the constitution and common law under your own circumstances. and as a common law woman, i do that. i do not abide by the statutes

and codes. and you don't have to do that. wake up and know who you are and know who your rights. and know that you're in bondage. >> katie, can you tell us when you -- what party if you were a party before you became a member of the tea party and when you switched over? what motivated that? >> i used to be a democrat. and then i realized that there was no such thing and that they were all working together. and they're all working together to make the economy fall. they're working together to make the men and women drop to their knees. and this is a design to collapse. it is in the bible. the bible is the biggest book of all for congress. and i'm no longer necessarily religious. but if you read the bible, you will see that it is the ultimate

book of commerce. every 70 years we file a bankruptcy. our system is in a bankruptcy. >> katie, thanks for weighing. in we have somebody at the podium. it looks like it will get underway shortly. if it doesn't let's try this one more call independence line. crystal lake, illinois. hi. >> don. >> don, i tell you what. it looks like it's getting back underway so we're going to go to the podium and see what's happening here. hang on the line for a second. and if we don't get to you we apologize. but let's listen in. >> we have three incredible speakers who are going to talk about this. this is one of the important topics we are going to talk about today. because as i mentioned earlier, it's the rule of 51. you got to have 51%. you have got to win elections because if you don't win elections, what's the point? we have three incredible people. peter wolf and warren edstrom from voices of america and kimberly fletcher from the

abigail adams project. they're going to come up and address you individually. now because of time constraints we are not going to be able to do a question and answer session. but they are going to be available as soon as we are done for you to individually ask them questions. the breakout session is going to be pushed back half a hour to 45 minutes upstairs. but we're still going to do it. so ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to peter wolf, warren edstrom and kimberly fletcher. [applause] >> good afternoon. my name is warren with the voices of america project. we have a web site -- we have a web site that gives a very

detailed information on how to organize your organization, how to expand your organization, and how to organize your precincts and your counties and your state. there's an organization in ohio called the ohio liberty council. it's kind of an umbrella organization that coordinates between all the patriot movements in ohio. and peter and i, were at one of the meetings. and we started talking about this. you go to meetings and go to rallies and you say what do you do now. the only way we can change anything is by affecting the outcomes of elections. and we said, how do we do that. so we got together and we started researching precinct organizing. and quite frankly, the democrats do it a whole lot better than republicans. so peter started researching. that i started doing research. and that's how voices of america came act. if you go on the web site and

that's the voices of america.org, this entire program you're going to see this afternoon is on there. you can download this and use it in your area. you can also print out the entire web site. we're not an organization. we're two guys and a web site basically, and a homemaker. kimberly fletcher is from the abigail adams project. and she has a lot of good information for you. i'd like to open with a biblical verse, proverbs 29/2. it says when the righteous are in authority the people rejoice. but when the wicked bearett rule the people mourn. do i hear anybody in here rejoicing today? >> we are. >> you're rejoicing because this is happening. a year ago i retired and thought i was going to go fishing. [laughter] >> and this thing has consumed my life since then.

fortunately -- [applause] >> fortunately i have a family that's very supportive. just a few things i'd like to go over before peter comes on and does the main part of the presentation. whenever you're playing with a cat, you notice the cat chases the end of a string. the cat doesn't pay attention where the other end of the string is at. and that's what we've been doing for a long time. we've been chasing the end of the string. one of the things that we have to do also is define the enemy. so much people as it is ideology and corruption. we have an administration now that's using corruption to drive ideology. they're buying votes. they're corrupting people. they're corrupting businesses. they're corrupting

organizations. so keep in mind that's why we have to elect people. we have to elect virtuous people into our government. i get so tired of watching people on television lie to me to my face and smile at me. another thing that really gets me is when head of the constitution and the american people. is. [applause] >> if you're talking to somebody that's running for office and you hear more about their party than you do about you and the people and the economy, don't touch them. do not touch them. the two biggest special interest groups in this country, and perhaps the world, are the -- are the republican and democratic party.

[applause] >> now, before i hand it over to peter, we use the voices of america project training to organize counties primarily. and then we connect the counties together for a statewide effort. in ohio last 23rd of january we put together a meeting with 250 -- approximately 250 leaders of patriot groups in the state of ohio and trained them on organizing. one of the things i found fascinating was the fact that we had organizations that i never thought would talk to each other. they came together in those meetings, learned how to do this, and went back to their counties and are working together to organize their precinct, get volunteers in the field. you can bypass the media if you're got enough feet on the street. with that said i'm going to turn this meeting over to peter wolf.

peter is from the cincinnati 912 project. and peter is the brains behind this. so give him a good round. thank you. [applause] thank you, warren. really appreciate the opportunity talking to all of you about this very important mat ter. because this really seems to me and to us is a culmination of a lot of the themes we've been hearing throughout this conference. and someone even uttered the words just before we came on about taking action. and that's what we're going to be talking about here. so how can we take action? so we have three themes here. i'm talking to precinct organizing. the agenda, please. i'm talking the precinct

organizing. and warren will come back up to talk about candidate nights. he's done a lot of different candidate nights to really ask some fundamental core questions of candidates. because if you send them surveys they lie a lot of the time, misrepresent the truth. and when you have these candidate nights -- and a lot of them are obviously occurring, mark referenced a number of them here in the memphis area. and then kimberly will follow with voter guides. and like warren said, we're just two guys and a web site, and then we linked up with kimberly and homemakers of america because that was her focus area. and it was a perfect fit, those three aspects coming together. so we've all been to d.c. or a lot of us have. can i have a show of hands who was in d.c.? that was an awesome, awesome period. and by the way, i know some of you left early on thursday night

because you traveled long distances, et cetera, were tired. that's a very good movie that they showed, the tea party, the events leading up to the washington, d.c. march. and obviously by virtue of all of the handy saw, there are lots of witnesses to the fact that there are more than 60,000 people there, right? [cheers and applause] >> i mean, it really frustrated me. i had just southwest ohio that's john baner's district where we had the largest town hall in the u.s.a. 18,000 people on september 5t september 5th. and we put john boehner up on stage and asked questions that they did not know beforehand. it was awesome. so i knew what 18,000 people looked like. when i was in d.c., it doesn't take a rocket scientist to multiply that number visually by three, you know, three to four times. so obviously there were lots of

people there. and i was so frustrated. even bill o'reilley insisted on using 60,000 people went to d.c. so i sent him an e-mail. i called him a pinhead. [laughter] >> no response yet. anyway, what warren mentioned, in july we were sitting at the ohio liberty council meeting. and we're saying so what's next. i mean, rallies serve the purpose in terms of obviously showing us we were not the only frustrated people. there are lots of us who are frustrated with the political system. and we came together. and we made connections. i mean, that's what ultimately led to this and all the connections we have throughout the country. we were informed, we learned. i was fascinated with how many hands went up in terms of people

who are never involved in the political process. up until january i never was. i was born in germany, actually. i was 10 years old. do i have a birth certificate from germany if you'd like to see that. [laughter] and i'm a citizen. so i voted all the time. but i really knew very little about the political process. and then warren mexicoed to me about this precinct -- mentioned to me offered to come down and teach us all. the more he talked the more i recognized, this is it. this is how you systemically proceed beyond the rallies to grow your organization. because right now when you have rallies you're preach together choir. you're not growing your organization. it's good for motivation, i mean, for all means keep up the rallies. but we need a systemic approach. and during the breakouts yesterday you saw some systemic approaches. -- smart did a great job on the i.t. capabilities. that's a systemic approach. it can be folded into a lot of these things that i'll be

talking about. and by growing your organization systemically, reaching out to people who aren't yet aware of this movement, you then gain greater political clout as well as importantly getting out the vote. i mean, mark skoda's comment about 50% of the people hadn't voted. i mean, that needs to change. and we are the ones who can change that with a get out the vote process. and by the way, you'll see go tv. that's get out the vote. i had to ask what the heck does go tv mean at the end of one of the activist training sites ended. as warren said, everything we're talking about is available on our web site. this presentation that you're seeing here will be available as of tuesday. there's the presentation on our web site right now on our home page which you can download.

but it's a bit outdated. but literally you'll be able to download exactly what i'm using as a powerpoint presentation, and as well as the content from the web site. we want leaders to be enabled, for you to be able to go back to your organization, give these kinds of presentations, to explain to your organizations how they can, you know, take action now in the systemic way. and since july we've done, you know, research on organizing best practices. now, it's not a difficult concept. when we're talking about precinct organizing, you basically start with a voter record. and i'll have -- say more about that late on why that is a very important document the voter record. you use that to focus on which voters in your precinct that you

engage. you then go out literally either door-to-door or you have volunteers call people to engage those voters to be identified. with the purpose of growing your organization. and then as we get closer to the election, to get out the vote. now, as i did this research i started with what's available on the internet. and i found a lot of great powerpoint presentations. sadly to say, 95% of what i found was from the democrats. 5% what i found from the republican party was pretty poor quality, i have to say. was not very insightful, lacked some of the pictures and graphics, et cetera. but here's a slide from the democrat icao party in texas. a strong grassroots organization effort will mean victory for democrats in 2008-2010. just think about it. there are 20% liberal democrats

in this country. they took the house, they took the senate, they took the presidency with 20% of the population feeling that way. so this is very powerful. here's howard dean. election bye precinct by precinct, door by door, vote by vote, we're going to lift the party up and take this country back for the people who built it. organizing for america understood this concept, you know. and i'm sure we're all aware of people come together doors. a lot of them were acorn and et cetera. but it was an effective process. and as you can see, this is a very powerful example i found. -- texas. literally in 2004 they only had one precinct out of 92 that was democratic. in 2006, two years later, they almost had 30% of those

precincts in that district. this is a very powerful testimonial to this process, this action stuff i'm about to share you with what it can accomplish. ..

grow the organization and then get out to vote at that time. any person involved with politics will tell you that strong, feet on the ground will beat any money, any lobbying, any day. there's no question about that. now, you look at this slide and hear what i've said thus far and must be wondering, why aren't they doing it to the same extent? for example. republican party. central committee positions, a lot of them are vacant because they don't need those people. why is that? i just mentioned the democrats did pursue precinct organizing and we're here because of the results they got with 20% of the population. here the reason why pre the sinth organizing has somewhat fallen out of favor. it's difficult to get

trustworthy volunteers. i'm sure we've heard all the stories associated with democratic organizations out-sourcing precinct. it's tough to get trustworthy volunteers that stay on message and consultants to be honest, they haven't figured out how to make money. it's like i can't make a lot of money or stay on message. conversely, consultants have figured out there's a lot of money to be made to be a middle man between the mass media, mass phone campaigns and mass mail campaigns because they work for third parties. when you look at the actual research and there's a very good book called, get out the vote written by two yale professors and they came out with the

second edition. get out the vote. it's a bit laborious because it's statistics based and doing research. they found all this money the political parties spend on this mass media and these mailing campaignses, let's stick with mass media and television. from a standpoint of getting out the vote, it makes a difference of zero to point point 6, point 7 percent. they were saying in this book it's probably closer to 0 but yet everyone keeps doing it. why is that? well, everyone is doing it and it looks like that's thing to do so as long as i'm doing it better than the next guy even though the end result isn't as effective, you know i look like a good political campaign manager. but here in lies the power of our organization. we have passionate volunteers.

passionate volunteers that can stay on message. - going door-to-door and they're free instead of $16 the democrats had to pay acorn that's going to be the secret to our success and, oh, by the way. 76 percent of the population in this country is conservative and moderate. think what we can do. this will be like a tsunami if we practice what we're talking about here today. take that back to the organizations and mobilize the volunteers going door-to-door and by the way, statisticically again, get out the vote book and most powerful things you can do to having an effect is that door-to-door organizing and having volunteers make calls.

not rob o calling but volunteers having a discussion like engagement with calls. that has a very strong correlation with getting out the vote. these phone banks, these scripted comments, i think we can all relate to that. not very much impact on getting out the vote. so let's talk about the specific office door-to-door canvases. again, it starts with the voter record. you go door-to-door in a focused way, using the information and grow your organization and get out the vote. so voter record, basically you have names. i blocked them out for privacy purpose here's but you can will it raly. these are usually in excel. some times in a different

imformat but this is called walking list. this is actually - you know knox county. you get these from your board of election in the countries and you can sort them by street and you know this, the column with,r and,d. those are registered democrats and those without are independents. typically you find a lot of independents. depending on which state you're in a voter record will have a lot of information in it. the most important information though, has to do with party affiliation. so when you go outdoor to door, you want to know what party are people affiliated with, and their voting history. now, the door-to-door press is also quite simple. you engage in we strongly advocate. there was a lively discussion

about this a nonpartisan message. remember, your goal is to identify people that are like-minded, to recruit them and then get them out to vote. and you're basically - you know you engage the person, ask, are you as concerned as i am about the government - you know - assault on our constitutional principals of government limited free markets and individual liberty? people may wonder what you're talking about. there's your opportunity to educate and we're all informed if you don't argue you don't debate. a person is not interesting in what you have to say, you proceed to the next person on your voter record walking list. if the person says, wow, you know i've been all by myself busy with family and work and i

didn't know you guys existed, you try to recruit them to help with the precinct organizing like what you're doing. to join your organization and lastly, get contact information. that'll come into play for the getting out the vote process. anyone can do this. lot of times people are apprehensive about door-to-door and on our website i put up anecdotal information for people in ohio. all along i hear anecdotal information. initially new timers feel very ill at ease. put them with someone more willing to. within three or four doors the newcomers say can i do this. this is actually a lot of fun and they'll proceed to then go on their own. you usually do this in pairs. the nonpartisan message is very

important though. because, and this is a panel discussion that was fascinateing in that regard. - but i think there seems to be a general agreement. stay with the lowest common denominator of what unites us and that's constitutional principals of limited government, free markets and individual freedoms and it's a consistent message everyone can articulate. there's no need to go beyond that. all of the meetings that we've given to leaders throughout ohio, whenever the discussion gets into that domain, suddenly people are not necessarily lined around a candidates or the issues. but yet, there's an underlying nonpartisan principal. constitutionally based that unites us so. why not just stay with that? you can attract independents and john kennedy democrats with that

message? a lot of democrats we're running into the meetings as we went around the state i. as amazing and of course conservatives and republicans. so you stay on message. the other thing that research has shown. when you do this work and get out the vote. say november 2010. 35 percent of the time, without any further intervention vengs those people will keep voting. once a you get them started a third will keep going on their own. the rest may need a robotic call later on. you want a message to move from today's campaign into the next and make this a sustainable movement where people take the power back from the career politicians. if you're just focused on vote for this candidate or vote for that issue, well, here today,

gone tomorrow. so i'd say, stick with a nonpartisan message. and trust the people. inform people to make the right decision when it comes to, who do i vote candidate wise. they'll figure it out. you have candidate nights. invite people to that. those who couldn't make candidate nights you put those in the voter guide. you'll hear all about that after my discussion. you still get that information out to people. with that information in terms of work candidates and get what they quote in these candidate nights and have it on record and put that into the voter guide. there's no weezling around of that. our last thing, by doing and stay wag nonpartisan message that has voter as peal, you also don't have to form a pack or

have a 527, et cetera. you can do this with a 5013c and that is the only non-profit that is tax deductible. all the others. 517, et cetera are not tax deductible. plus, there's a lot of record keeping with all of those so. it's safe er to stay with a 501c three in education. george washington, anticipated where - in some point in time the american people would find themselves and i think this is where we are. we saw the movie last night that was great. generation zero and some of the discussions and some of the people up here talking and basically. where are we? cunning and ambitious and

unprincipaled men will subvert the power of the people into themselves the reigns of government de stroig afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. this is where we are. we literally have a government, this is with passion. you can engage people door-to-door, over the phone, are you concerned? why. because look at what's going on? the government is taking more and more of our money by way of taxes. it's legal robbery and they're taking more and more of our children's and grant children's money by the way of created debts and they're nationalizing more of the private sector so they have more and more control over everything. and with rules and regulations that they pass, they're starting to infiltrate every aspect of our life. this unfortunately is, we saw in

a movie last night there's these trends. history teaches us this is a normal course that things progress through. where the elite will emerge at the expense of those working people and take money away. you become a serf to those in political powers. frederick highak. if you've never read this book there's a free version called road to serfd o m. in 1944. it spells out chapter by chapter how this whole progression occurs and how the career politicians literally take over your life and you become a serf and therefore it's called road to serf. he was a nobel prize economist in 1972 and he won a nobel

prize. that's when a nobel prize still meant something. but - this road to serfdom we're going through those. there's a chapter on the rule of law. when the rule of law no longer equally applies to everyone. we have geithner and a number of politicians in washington that suddenly realize. my gosh, i have all these mansions that i own outside the country and i've not been paying taxes. i didn't know about that. the person just happens to be in charge of writing our tax code? charlie wronger. so when the rule of law no longer applies, you just try those stunts the. irs will be on you before you know it. when the rule of law no long another flies uniformly to

everyone, your heading down the road to serf. in you go chavez. hey yek wrote this book about basically germany. the republic but hugo chavez in venezuela. he started out socialism. democracy, wanting to help the poor and impoverished. massive nationalization of industry, and where did it get him? for all practical purposes there was an article on the "wall street journal". he's given up on even trying pretend it as democracy because now the people, the poor people that were supposed to get more money from the money are. their standard of life is poor though and they're in the streets protesting. and hugo chavez is saying you better watch out.

he's turned into a dictator now. that's last recourse if you google road to serfdom and readers digest it'll take you to uk website. i think every volunteer out to read that and be very well informd to precisely articulate what's at stake here and why common citizens like us need to mobilize against the political elite. i'll tell you how bad the situation is. the three of us were driving down from ohio and had a conversation and a number of people are running in primaries. tea party republicans running in primaries and so it's like we were wondering, well what if they lose? you think they'll run independent? we didn't have answer. and i wasn't willing to bet. i said i've learned enough about politics i'll not bet on anything because anything is possible. let's call the secretary of state's lawyer. so i have the persons name in my

cell phone and we call the lawyer from the car and talk. we say okay a tea party republican loses because a republican party chose to put their money and support behind the other republican. can that person runs a an independent now? you won't believe the answer. no. it's called sore loser law in the state of ohio you cannot runs a an independent. it gets worse. you can't run for any office in that upcoming election cycle except for school board. that's law in ohio. that's how the political elite are trying keep people like us out of the process. they've riged the process and it's probably across all of your states so. any way, i spend a lot of o time on the nonpartisan message because i think it's so important and obviously there

was a lot of discussion and points of disagreements as well and that's okay. we don't have to all agree. we all have the same goal but maybe different strategies. okay? thomas jefferson said, inform people and be trusted. he's right. most recently. karl row even acknowledged that. he said look, the tea party has accomplished a lot through education and informing people. keep it up. allow your members to make the voting decision. they will make the right decision in the end of the day. and you know, right now in terms of candidate endorsement it's a risky proposition. washington nbc. that's an interesting combination but nevertheless, here are the results. some of you might have seen that. the hypothetical tea party beats

the republican and democrat. these are startling results. we're seeing a sea change. state of ohio i hear you're going to split the vote. we're not trying say, vote independent. we're going to leave it up to the people. district by district to make the decision. who is the best candidate after they've been vetted through candidate night and discussions with the citizenry. so - you know and we've seen with scott brown, who could have anticipated that. we're kind of at a moment to not trust the experts because they tell us, we know what's happening here. you're going to again like in the past splits the votes if you don't align behind the republican party. - but just think of the experts in the past who have been wrong.

the founder of ibm thought the world would only ever need five computers. that's pretty interesting. mack cow s the inventor of the cell phone was thought of as a nut case in his time. he laughed all the way to the bank. we all have our cell-phones in our pockets, right? i think we're at the pivotal point in time where historically what's happened is no longer true. who could have perceived scott brown would have won that raise. where where the candidates come from? scott brown has inspired from what i'm reading and seeing. a lot of people to get into the political process are saying, you mo' what this message was simple. very nonpartisan. right the kind of things that i have articulated should be our

nonpartisan message. he didn't get into all these issues but kept it very simple. had a lot of help from the tea partyers. there's only 13% republicans in massachusetts. 15 percent independents but 6 thousand tea partyers went door-to-door and there's lots of people from around the country calling into massachusetts making these conversational calls to get out the vote and it worked. that's the power. now let's go - there's amiss conception here i want to just clarify. when you hear precinct organizeing a lot of people get confused with this is running for central committee or precinct executive et cetera. it's not same. when you run and that's lower section i'm talking about. when you run for central committee of a party.

democratic or republican party, you in essence, are entering a hierarchy and you're trying work your way up that organization hierarchy as if you were to join a company and gain greater influence. the outcome of this process is candidate selection and intent is conservative candidate selection and funding by the party. it as noble goal and i'm all for it. it's strategic plank but having been in changed management and fortune 50 company, i'm here to tell you that they're attacking a business model that's based on money, power and corruption. and don't for one minute think you can just walk through the door and change that business model. i've driven a lot of change incorporate america and have lots of termination threats for those power that i was a

feblthed. i had a high level of coverage. but the immune system. i talk about how the corporate immune system is kicking in. the immune system of the partys will seek you out and kill you off like a virus before you get started. you will spend an enormous amounts of energy in this organizational structure just to be able to silent a candidate and instead you could spend all that time and effort doing real precinct organization getting out the vote in the precincts with the voter record. now let's go through the election leverage. this is the fascinating part of it. a lot of people have no appreciation. when you do this in a focused way how effective it can be. some statistics. thousand eligible voters for precinct. 80 percent registered. 20% not registered and there was

a great sexton unregistered and how to get them registered. a lot of people don't bother if they're already so there's tremendous opportunity there as well. 60 percent of the people votes in the presidential election. 40-60 in midterm elections like 2010 depends on precinct and 30 percent vote in primaries and you need 51% to win. those are some of the ground rules and statistics. this chart shows you now how we're going to focus when you go door-to-door. remember, the objective of going door-to-door is to find the people. identify the people who are like-minded. you're not going out there to convert people, okay? you're trying find people that may not be aware of your organization and recruit them and then have contact information to get out the vote. so what you don't do is you look at the voter records and consort

them by party registration and then engage the democrats. with one exception. as we have gone around we're starting to realize, wow there's a lot of people part of operation chaos and they're registered democrats now. so you may choose to robot call these people to extract them out of the democratic registration. they'll say i'm totally aligned with what you're saying. i was about ware of your organization. just one quick sweep. not too much time because you do not want to waste your time debating and arguing door-to-door. you're trying find like-minded people that can join you're original any saibs and get out the vote later. additionally, you don't spend time going after republicans who always vote. remember, i said i need to know party affiliation and voting record. and the voting frequency.

the voting records show your voting frequency. when people voted. primaries. midterm electives and some go back three or four cycles so we have a lot of information. you can be focused so why bother with republicans that always go to the pole and always vote republican or conservative. just trust them to do the same and then don't bother with people that never bother to vote. okay? now we skip to the area of focus. independents. this is a very fertile area. in dependants that always vote. if you can engage them in a nonpartisan message not apart san endorse this candidate or pursue this issue. are you concerned about the aspects of limited government, free markets and individual liberties that are being

threatened? join us. okay so that's rich area and then of course, the sometimes vote republican, as well as sometimes vote independent voter. basically, what we've done here is we've narrowed down the field in terms of the voters you engage in your precinct. you know by quite a bit. it's like a third but it depends where they land in terms of party registration so it nose at third. but you've narrowed it down immensely. let's take this to a practical application and this will blow you away. this is a precinct just north of me in southwest ohio and important column to look at assumes 60 percent turn-out for midterm elections. that's on the high side. all the numbers i share with you

here will be on the high side if you look at the 2006 election results the last midterm and see well only 40-45 percent came out to vote. all these numbers will be somewhat lower, but you want to look at the right column where you have 647 total votes cast. you need 51% of those so let's say 324. you also notice that while i already have 226 republicans so i can assume they will vote the way they always have, which means of the 287 independents i only need 98. remember these numbers are based on a 60 percent turn-out if the turn-out is lower the numbers will be lower. now a precinct of a thousand is a whole lot more manageable if i can go and convert 98 independents in the precinct to

go vote for the conservative can day date on principals. we can win that election in this precinct. it gets even easier in primarys with 30 percent turn-out. in this case, again look on the right, democratic primary can be decided with just 35 votes. this is why operation chaos had an effect potential or had a lot of potential because someone obviously had gone through the numbers and recognized we can make a big difference in the primaries. getting back to the sore loser law in ohio, parties really recognized it's easy to knock me off in if i'm an uncouple bent because they don't need a lot of votes. but if i beat them i don't want that person to runs a an independent so i'll take them out of circulation as soon as i

do what i have to win the election in primary. so, what i've shared with you is when you go door-to-door, how to focus on the most likely candidates who are likely to be like-minded. and who's contact information you get, who may choose to volunteer and who can be mobilized to get out the vote. now let's talk about a district. a congressional district with 650 precincts in them. of the 650 precincts you don't necessarily address all of them. you basically look at the most conservative verses liberal and you focus again on the top 30 percent of your precincts that have the highest probability of like-minded voters. and you put three times as much

effort and this could be door-to-door events or phone calling, robo calming or maybe even mailing. how do i know the precincts match up? well you get the last election. november 2008 election results and look at obama, ma mccain splits available from the secretary of state, and you can very easily just discern. how do i the top 30 percent here's the precincts in the district we need to focus more energy and effort on and go from there. and oh, by the way the voter records are available i think i might have mentioned earlier from your county board of election. some times the secretary of state's website has the voting records in ohio, all of the country or counties 88 are available for download off the

secretary of state's website. they're ready to be used by your organization in summary, it's very easy to focus on which voters to engage. which precincts in the district to really focus the energies of the volunteers you have. now to show you how effective this is, this is again from organizing for america. this is how they manage with 20% of the vote to win the election in 2008. they knew if they got ten more democrats in those states per precinct they would win those states. they also knew 50 more democrat votes for precinct and these are available on the internet. they have these power-point presentations. power stuff. so in precincts after thousand to 1300, you narrow down to

getting either 10, 50 or 100 more voters and win the precinct as and you can win the state. now here's, and i allowed this earlier. 76 percent of the people are conservative or moderate if we can mobilize them to go and vote, we will win this election and be like a tsunami. they can't see what's going on right now because they're in the ocean with a ship. the tsunami might have only risk ten surface by an inch or so but once it hits the shore it's very damming. if organizations pursue this precinct organizing we could have a tsunami event and elect a lot more conservative candidates. this pole just came out january 31st. only 4% of the people support the political class.

this gives you an indication how fruitful this door-to-door or volunteers calling in a conversational maner is likely to recruit more members for your organization and to get out the vote. this is the nonpartisan message i proposed and republicans and independent voters are the most likely to hold this view, but amazingly. 51% of democrats are holding this view today. we need to reach out. bring them into our fold. like i said, we've seen lots of democrats so how do you get started? okay. this is a methodology available on download. so there's a lot of content i'm throwing at you to give you a sense of the possibilities and hopefully, intrigue you enough to download the content. the plan of action is, you go back in your various reagents and you have to organize with

the other organizations in your regent. like warren said, we brought a lot of them together who start working together recognizing it doesn't make sense for one organization to do this so, you join with others and decide on a date to have a common meeting among your meeting members and send out a newsletter. we're doing this in collaboration with the other organizations and here's the place. we'll train you, look for the - yeah look for the precinct - look for a precinct person who is willing to do this work and then grow the organization from there. and see where we are. okay. next slide? basically, so once you identify a person, you have a common

meeting of all of your organizations. of people who might be interested in this and don't even say that we're looking for someone that's going to run the whole show. maybe just call them a precinct catalyst because of the people they then recruit. there might be some that are much more inclined and willing to be a leader but at least someone took the leader of catalyzing it. how do you get more people in the precinct. the best practice is you need about 10 to 20 people. that sounds like a lot but when you robot call, you can do that. it will grow your organization. and mark and his break-out session yesterday had an excellent example of a robot call and exemplifies how they work in terms of engaging people, telling you or them you

exist. so you can do that and on the website we have arrangement with someone in ohio that will do for it 4 cents per call. that's $40 for precinct for a thousand robot calls but you don't even need to call all thousand. you focus on which voters you call. get a lot of mile age out of money. that's one day to recruit additional people in the precinct and we saw this with acorn they had parties in the precinct. invited neighbors and others interested and that was a reaching out process. relatives or friends. within the precinct, and then encourage them to do the same thing. before you know it you'll have your ten to twenty people to get the vote out in 2010 and 201 and beyond. the last slide is on our website. i'll not go through detail in the spirit of time.

that's why i've been rush together acknowledge we're running behind in the session, but there's a lot of sub tabs on our website. the main tabs and on each one breaks down leaders tabs and sub tabs so basically all of the details in instructions on how to do this are on the website and you can also download power point with a lot of the same content. you know even to the point we have a walk around talking script and you can go from there and modify. - and so here's our website. we would welcome you to come there. and then the last slide, speaks to the timing for this is just perfect. because you normally start this in january and between then and august, you build your

organization. you build your contact list and get e-mail addresses and phone numbers that are not already available on the voter records and you know who those like-minded voters are and then come september, october, you really start going into the get out the vote mode in terms of really engaging those like-minded voters to win the election. so thank you for your time and i'll and this over now to warren to talk to you about candidate night. thank you. [applause]. >> candidate nights. how many of you have been to the

town hall or candidate night where the candidates got all of the questions to two weeks ahead of time? gave them a lot of time to spin them. that's kind of a town hall without the town. what we have been doing is - we invite all the candidates to town hall or candidate night, we - we tried to start these things in a time-line fashion. a lot of your absent ballots go out early so you want to get your town hall, can day date nights done before your absent ballots go out. you have to do town hall and

compile answers to the questions and then you have to distr diste those. you try to set those up as soon as possible. when you're doing a candidate night, have audience ask the questions. you can have a couple of questions of your own. a couple of key ones but try to have the audience do the questioning. candidates get nervous about that because they have to think on their feet and a lot of them will not know the answers and will dance a little bit but if they don't know the answers the people need to know that. lot of them are not very informed. they're booked the way the leadership tells them. that's why they don't have to read it so. audience members enter the town hall event and like to ask questions if they do you give them a card and have them put

their name on it. in order to maintain objectivity you ask someone in the crowd to pull the names and and it to the moderator who then asks the questions. the person who's select supply and demand allowed to ask a direct question of participant. each candidate will have three minutes to answer those questions and this could be modified. we have a primary for district 18 in ohio with 17 candidates we have to pair that down to a minute because of time constraints the person asking the question has the opportunity to ask one follow-up question and that can be aimed at the candidate or they can ask a question of one other candidate. same question. before you get started, each candidate has five minutes to o voice his or her reasons for running. any questions directed at the candidate with a yes or no has

to be answered that way or they go on the voter guide as refused to answer. that usually, knowing that's going to happen usually keeps them pretty on cue because they don't want to be on the voter guide as refused to answer. okay. at the end of the answer and question period each candidate has three minutes for a cloegs statement. that - a lot of times you'll see opening and closing statements change because of the fact they've been put in a position to answer certain questions and that kind of changes the direction they'll go. after the events compile a voter guide for all the questions and answers and distribute them through the precincts with your volunteers. one of the questions i tried to ask because i've moderated some of these is, you're going to vote your values, not necessarily your values will be

over your leadership sometimes okay? so i'm not so interested in their where their at on the issues but what their values are one of the questions i ask them, your values will determine how you vote on the issues. what is the foundation for your personal value and your political values? now to me the first question is bible and second question is the constitution. if i don't get - [applause] if i don't get those answers then i drill down further and find out what the actual value system is other than well, you know? my dad was a good person and only cheated on mom once. so - try to locate them value wise because like i said, their values will have a lot of bearing on how they come down on

issues. okay? at the end of your voter night, your candidate night, take a pole of the people coming out. mark them down. what we do is and them the little slip going in with everybody's name on it with a box next to it. when they come out you tabulate those and give those to the press. this keeps the political parties from spinning who gets the most vote and who's the most popular in the party. we don't care. we care who's the most popular with the people. and that is a very good way to do it. you'll find the press will talk to you more because you'll give them information that the parties are not really trying spoon feed them. just by way of information in the state of ohio. the republican party took an internal poll and the question

was how many of you are tea party republicans and how many are traditional republicans. the tea party republicans came out 60 percent and traditionals came out 40%. the republican party is worried about this because obviously you folks have a sway in that arena. and - i think by staying independent and putting pressure on these people you can force both political parties to go conservative. without your support they're not going to win as we saw in massachusetts. okay that's short and sweet of that one. with that, i'll turn it over to kimberly fletcher from the abigail adams process and you'll see her go through the distribution of the candidate night voter guide. kimberly? [applause

[applause]. >> all right. first of all, boy you really can't see. i want to thank all of you for staying here. our presentation - our presentation was suppose to start at 11:00 so i want to apologize. we're good at staying right on message and right on time. i had a really hard time getting to sleep last night after that movie. it was a very, very good depiction of - predicaments we're in and i want you to know that's i was walking across that bridge, all i kept thinking was, oh, my gosh. i knew but that really brought it home. didn't it? it was really hard not to have a sense of hopelessness creep in,

but i want you to know that it's not hopeless. it really isn't. i have been doing this for 12 years and i'm part of the one percent that's been fighting for the 99 percent that didn't each know there was a fight. i have more hope than i ne ever have in my whole life because you are here and i'm so grateful. [applause] so those of you who said i'm so thankful because you're about to get the answer. everything i've been going to the break out sessions and been very quiet listening because i wanted to know how you guys felt and what you stood. what your issues were. what we're presented today is the answer so. everybody that needed to go and meet, i totally gets it. go tell them how important this was. if somebody wants to go out and try to round the press up.

it's so important that you get this information. let me tell you quickly about myself to you know why i'm here and dedicated to the movement in 1995 i said i do to an officer in the united states air force. that really did a lot to change my life. i was raised by a mother that respected the constitution and loved her country and that more than anything developed my love for this nation and what it stands for. but, marrying an officer in the air force, really changes that and makes it stronger. but it wasn't until september 11th, 2001 - i'm sorry. when a plane flew into the pentagon where my husband was stationed. it wasn't until then that i realized the price of freedom.

my husband through a series of miracles walked out of the pentagon that day. [applause]. - but i swore that day, never again - i looked at my children and i thought about ronald reagan's words if we don't preserve and fight for liberty we're going to be sitting on our porch telling our grandchildren how it used to be when people were free in america and after i have seen the things that have happened the last year and the, tyranny and oppression that's expanding. first of all, thank you again president barack obama, but at the same time, i look at my children and i think, am i going to be one of those grandparents that's sitting on my porch steps telling my children and

grandchildren what it used to be like? not on my watch! [applause]. i want to tell you - why it is that what i'm doing is so important. why it is that i'm here is for the same reason your here. we all have our own stories but it's all for the same thing. we want freedom to remain in this country and my husband came back from a tour of duty in iraq in november and he had a follow on assignment to hawaii and was home for two months and he left two weeks ago and we're now living the john and abigail adams life until after the election because i'm not committed and not dedicated and

he's always kind to call me when i get up every morning and look at the snow and tell me how wonderful the surf is in hawaii, so i'm here because i believe in this and there's no other reason. and when dave said the difference between a patriot and a conservative. i mentioned this to a few in his session and this is the gosh honest true. if you're a a patriot you know because you paid 500 plus dollars to come to this conference. i don't care what the media says about the cost. it's worth it to get this information. you're the ambassadors to share it. i'm about to tell you how we're going to preserve liberty in this country. i'm the president of homemakers for america. it's a non-profit 50123 organization dedicated to education. our mission statement is pretty clear. our mission is to foster an

understanding, love and respect for america's history and heritage for founding principals and values. her legacy and destiny and build a nation of informed citizens and patriots one woman and family at a time. when we announced the abigail adams from it totally fit with our mission. the abigail adams project is information. it is the power of information that we're looking for and i need to give you some definitions. you probably read that one because it's really important that we understand what we're dealing with here. we're not dealing with politics. i read my mission statement to a friend at church. a couple of years ago. she was interested in what i was doing and when i read that mission statement, she said, oh, i don't get involved in politics. i'm sorry.

and it occurd to me that the main problem with our country today is that we've all walked way from our responsibilities because of the word politics and confused what is it we're doing. how many of you like politics? your nuts. okay. i hate politics. i want you to know that i get involved in campaigns, i get involved in helping candidates and i run a victory center in 2008 i ran with two other centers. for palin. the other guy was on the ticket but it wasn't about him. and we have my family and i, and several volunteers we've organized have been out voting at the polls, i've been voting since i was 18 years old every election. and in 2000-2001 a friend of mine introduced me to the

townhall meeting and it changed my life. at that point, i really got involved and realized there's this whole entire world going on without me and i decided it's time for me to get in. i was sitting and i leand to my friend and said, does this always happen? and he said yeah, without you. and i was like, no more. if all these people are making decisions and i'm not part of it, for me that's changing right now. so i started going to these townhall meetings and from 2004, when we moved to dayton, ohio. every election whether it was the primary. the general, midterm, presidential, special election, our family was there at the polls handing out information to the voters as they were walking in to the vote. [applause]. what we have learned is

absolutely phenomenal. organized volunteers to o go do this and what we learned through our experience is that politics is a product of pride worldlyness and a lust for power. what we do is not that. what we do is civic responsibility. civic response biment is that duty every american has to respect the law, pre serve the constitution and safeguard the representative public and be involved in the dpovbt and seek out elected good leaders to represent us. politics is the result of what happens when not enough of us will fill that duty. [applause]. let me give you two more definitions. so we kind of get an idea what it is we're battling here because there's been a lot of talk about, what are we defining? progressives.

liberals, okay well i'm fighting for the constitution and anybody in this movement that has a problem with that, get out. you don't have a place here. a side from that we'll all have our own individual beliefs and we all have to decide individually how we're going to get involved and who we'll support. that's beauty of this movement. what's it about? it's about individuals acting individually in a group across the nation. getting back involved in our country. so what are we fight sng a politician, let's define that. person that lusts for power and is obsessed with self importance and motivated by greed. politics, politicians have been groomed in politics and learn the arts of craftyness of deceit and scheme together get votes